Negative Forms

Negative Forms in Spanish

Understanding how to use negatives in Spanish can improve your ability to express a range of thoughts and ideas. Here are the key points to remember:

• Making Sentences Negative: The most common way to make a sentence negative in Spanish is to place ‘no’ directly before the verb. For example, “Yo no hablo español” translates to “I do not speak Spanish”.

• Use of Nunca/Jamás: ‘Nunca’ and ‘jamás’ both mean ‘never’ in English. They are used almost interchangeably, however, ‘jamás’ is slightly more dramatic. For example, “Yo nunca como carne” or “Yo jamás como carne” translates to “I never eat meat”.

• Double Negatives: Unlike English, double negatives are grammatically correct in Spanish and often used for emphasis. For example, “Yo no quiero nada” translates as “I do not want anything”, but the literal translation is “I don’t want nothing”.

• Nothing, Nobody, None, and Never: These are translated in Spanish as ‘nada’, ‘nadie’, ‘ninguno/a’, and ‘nunca/jamás’ respectively. Remember that these words also cause the sentence to be negative. For example, “Ella no ve a nadie” means “She doesn’t see anybody”.

• Negation of Existence: For this, Spanish uses ‘no hay’ which means ‘there is not’ or ‘there are not’. For example, “No hay pan” translates to “There is no bread”.

• Adverbs of Negation: Words like ‘nunca’ (never), ‘tampoco’ (neither/nor), ‘apenas’ (hardly) and ‘siquiera’ (not even) also serve to negate parts of sentences in Spanish.

• Affirmative to Negative Sentences: Generally, when changing an affirmative sentence to a negative one in Spanish, the negative word(s) come at the beginning of the sentence. For example, “Algo” (something) becomes “Nada” (nothing), and “Siempre” (always) becomes “Nunca” (never).

Remember that the correct usage of negative forms often comes naturally with practice in writing, speaking, and reading Spanish. Try and make use of these negative forms in your daily practice to master this aspect of Spanish grammar.