nichts or nicht?
a1One s separates two parts of speech: nicht negates a sentence or a word and is no thing itself, nichts is a pronoun standing where a thing would otherwise stand - it is the opposite of etwas.
nicht
Negates the whole verb or a single word. In sentence negation it sits as far back as possible, before the second part of the verb.
Ich verstehe das nicht.I do not understand that.
nichts
A pronoun for the empty set, never inflected. It takes the place of a noun and can be subject or object.
Ich habe nichts verstanden.I understood nothing.
The mistake
Ich habe nicht gesagt - gemeint ist, dass gar nichts gesagt wurde.
Ich habe nichts gesagt.
Without the s the sentence has no object: it merely denies the saying and waits for a complement. With the s the object is there - and it is the empty set.
Rule of thumb
Substitute etwas. If it fits in the same slot, nichts is right; if it makes no sense, nicht belongs there.
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