3 ms·
No is a boolean operator, not a number. "Do you have any bread?" ... "No. I have no bread." It's the opposite of yes, or some. No or none isn't countable, it's
by simonh 4y ago
No is a boolean operator, not a number. "Do you have any bread?" ... "No. I have no bread." It's the opposite of yes, or some. No or none isn't countable, it's the opposite of any positive quantity, that's why the concept of zero was so counter-intuitive.
It's far more common to say "I haven't got any bread". There's no word or phase in there that's proxying for a number.
- andsoitis 4y agoI agree that "no" is not equivalent to "zero". Your example ("No. I have no bread"), however, uses "no" in two different ways. The first is negation and the second represent the null/empty set ("no bread"). And the empty set is not the same as zero.