Poco
poco interesante‘not very interesting’/‘uninteresting’
poco atractivo‘not very attractive’/‘unattractive’
(a)Poco is sometimes used instead of the prefix in- or des- in order to convey a lesser
degree of the quality or characteristic expressed by the adjective. Compare for instance:
algo poco apropiado‘something not very appropriate’
algo inapropiado‘something inappropriate’
un hombre poco conocido‘a not very well known man’
un hombre desconocido‘an unknown man’
(b)Nada conveys stronger negation than either poco or the prefixes in- and des-:
un problema nada fácil‘a not at all easy problem’
una persona nada inteligente‘a not at all intelligent person’
Now consider how negation varies in degree in each of these phrases, arranged here
from the least strong to the strongest:
una actitud poco correcta‘a not very correct attitude’
una actitud incorrecta‘an incorrect attitude’
una actitud nada correcta‘a not at all correct attitude’
(c) The meaning expressed by a noun can be negated by placing no before it:
los no fumadores‘non-smokers’
la no violencia‘non-violence’
la no intervención‘non-intervention’^15 (p. 57)
32.4 Other ways of expressing negation
32.4.1 Ni... ni...
Ni... ni... , ‘neither... nor’, may either precede or follow the verb to which it refers.
If the latter is the case, the verb must be preceded by no.
Ni Sofía ni Joaquín asistieron a la función.
No asistieron ni Sofía ni Joaquín a la función.
Neither Sofía nor Joaquín attended the performance.
The first construction lays more emphasis on the ni... ni... phrase and overall it is
less frequent than the second one.32.4.2 Ni siquiera+ verb/No+ verb +siquiera
The phrase ‘not even.. .’, as in ‘He didn’t even look at me’, can be expressed in Spanish
by placing the phrase ni siquiera... before the verb (or accompanying pronouns) or by
using the construction no+ verb + siquiera. Both constructions express strong
negation, but overall the first one is more colloquial and frequent than the second one.
Ni siquiera me miró or No me miró siquiera.
He/she didn’t even look at me.Other ways of expressing negation 32.4