I am a bit confused about a sentence I came across in an anki deck:
誰もその話を知らない。
I know that that 誰 means "who" and も means "also", but the translation it gives me is:
"No one knows that story."
Someone please explain.
Thank you n_n
誰 by itself does not mean 'who'. Nor does も always mean 'also'. Words like 誰 are called indeterminates, and are more essential than wh-words (It can be a part of the meaning of a wh-word; Not wh-word itself). 誰 only means 'some variable (something that does not have a fixed reference) that ranges over people'. Depending on what particle it is used with, it would be translated into different words in English:
誰 who
誰か someone
誰も anyone/everyone
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Thank you so much! I haven't learned about indeterminates yet. You were very helpful. It makes a lot of sense now. n_n – smkraft Dec 1 '11 at 20:21
used with a negative verb 誰も means no one or nobody.
誰もその卑わいな冗談を笑わなかった。No one laughed at the obscene joke.
Used with a regular verb (positive?) it can mean anyone, anybody, everybody or everyone.
誰もがその話を知っている。Everyone knows that story.
誰もそのことに異存［異論］はない。Everyone agrees about that. （No one objects to that.)
here are a number of examples http://eow.alc.co.jp/誰もその/UTF-8/?ref=sa
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2[誰もその話を知っている。Everyone knows that story.] - Shouldn't that be
誰でもor誰もが? – istrasci Dec 1 '11 at 23:09 -
I also was going to ask about 誰でも. So does it mean everyone or anyone? Or something else entirely? – dotnetN00b Mar 6 '12 at 3:48
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@dotnetNOOb it can mean everyone , anyone or noone when used with ない. depends on context: eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=誰でも&ref=sa – yadokari Mar 6 '12 at 17:00
