Welcome to our grammar lesson about negative words and sentences in Spanish.
In this lesson, we will learn the basics about how to construct negative sentences in Spanish. For that, we will study the negative words we can use, as well as their placement in the sentence.
At the end of the lesson you’ll find a Quiz for practice.
Contents
1. Negative word “no” in sentences
“no” is the most important word to construct negative sentences. Its usual place is right before the verb:
No leo muchos libros.
I don’t read many books.Marta no es mi hermana.
Marta isn’t my sister.¿Tú no has comido todavía?
You haven’t eaten yet?
However, if before the verb there are any Direct Object , Indirect Object or Reflexive Pronouns (me, te, se, lo…), we need to place “no” right before them:
No me gusta esta película.
I don’t like this film.Manuel no se ha levantado.
Manuel hasn’t got up.Ellos no me lo dan.
They don’t give it to me.
Using “no” twice to emphasize
If we wish to emphasize the negative meaning of the sentence, we can use “no” twice: the first time before a comma, and the second time before the verb as we have explained in this lesson:
No, mis amigos no saben bailar.
No, my friends don’t know how to danceNo, no me gusta pintar.
No, I don’t like painting.
2. Negative words “nada”, “nadie”, “nunca”, “ninguno” and “tampoco”
There are other words often included in negative sentences in Spanish. These words and their meanings are:
- nada = anything, nothing
- nadie = anybody, nobody
- nunca = never
- ningún – ninguno/a/os/as = any / none
- tampoco = either / neither
In general, when we include any of these words in a negative sentence, we have 2 possible spots where to place them:
- Replacing “no” before the verb.
- After the verb, keeping “no” before the verb.
Let’s now read example sentences. For each negative word, we will show the 2 spots where we can place it:
Nada
The following are two ways of saying “I don’t like anything”:
No me gusta nada.
Nada me gusta.
Nadie
Two ways of saying “You don’t know anybody?”:
¿No conoces a nadie?
¿A nadie conoces?
Nunca
Two ways of saying “I’ve never drunk alcohol”:
Yo nunca he bebido alcohol.
Yo no he bebido alcohol nunca.
Ningún – Ninguno/a/os/as
Two ways of saying “We aren’t interested in any of them”:
No nos interesa ninguno.
Ninguno nos interesa.
Tampoco
Two ways of saying “We don’t have coffee either”:
No tenemos café tampoco.
Tampoco tenemos café.
3. Practice negative words and sentences
Quiz
Take this short Quiz to test your knowledge about negative words and sentences in Spanish!:
