Learn English – reduce “couldn’t find anything” to “nothing” in this sentence

coordinationnegationsentence-construction

Can I write

I checked it, but nothing

instead of

I checked it but couldn't find anything

?

Best Answer

"But nothing" is too incomplete to be an independent clause, so "I checked it, but nothing" would not be a well formed sentence.

Very informally, one might possibly say:

I checked. Nothin'.

… but I would recommend against it for an English learner.

What could be an acceptable sentence would be:

I checked it, but found nothing.