Nadie ‘no one’, ‘not... anyone’ and nada ‘nothing’, ‘not...
anything’Both of these may precede or follow the verb.
Nadais more common as the verb’s object and so is likely to follow:
No descubrió nada. He found nothing/He didn’t find
anything.
¿No le felicitó nadie ayer? Did no one congratulate him
yesterday?
Nadie quiere ser asociado No one wants to be associated
con ella. with her.
When qualified by an adjective, nada takes the masculine gender:
La teoría no tiene nada The theory has nothing new.
novedoso.
Notes: Other uses of nada.
1 As an adverb with the meaning of ‘not at all’, ‘by no means’: No me gusta nada
lo que estoy escuchando‘I don’t like at all what I am hearing’.
2 As a noun: La amenaza surgió de la nada ‘The threat came from nowhere’.
3 In phrases such as: pues nada ‘well then’, ‘OK’; de nada‘not at all’, ‘you’re
welcome’; nada más‘nothing more/else’.
4 Nada más, especially followed by an infinitive, is found as a colloquial alterna-
tive to apenas‘scarcely’, ‘barely’, or en cuanto ‘as soon as’: Nada más levantarse
salen de casa‘As soon as they get up they leave the house’.Nunca and jamás ‘never’, ‘not ever’Generally with similar meaning, they are frequently used before the verb
but can also be positioned after it in the double-negative construction.
Jamásis considered to be more emphatic and is less common.
As with no, the subject cannot be placed between nuncaorjamás and a
following verb:
Rocío nunca viene a cenar a nuestra casa.
Rocío never comes to dinner at our house.
No he probado el gazpacho nunca.
I have never had gazpacho.24.2.224.2.1^1111
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Negation