Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Ya no se ve a ningún hombre vestido así.

You no longer see any men dressed like that.

No encontró ningunos pantalones que le quedaran bien.

He could not find any trousers which suited him.

Notes:

1 Ningunocan be placed after the noun for emphatic effect: No hay razón ninguna

‘There is no reason at all’.

2 Alguno‘some’ can be placed after the noun for an even stronger negative

meaning, see 9.3.

Tampoco ‘neither’, ‘not either’

This can be used on its own before the verb, or after a verb preceded by

noor ni:

Tampoco vino Isabel. Isabel didn’t come either.

No vieron a los jugadores They did not see the players

tampoco. either.

As with English ‘neither’ and ‘nor’, the associated verb is dropped in a

negative reply to a statement:

–No me gustó nada. –A mí tampoco.

‘I didn’t like it at all.’ ‘Nor did I.’

–No han traído la comida. –La cerveza tampoco.

‘They have not brought the food.’ ‘Nor the beer either.’

Combinations of negatives

Two or more negative words may be combined in a sentence. No, or

another of them, mustprecede the verb to form the typical Spanish double

negative construction. The order in which they are used is generally that

of English. For stylistic reasons it is better to avoid a string of more than

two negatives after the verb.

No me trajeron nunca nada/Nunca me trajeron nada.

They never brought me anything.

24.2.6

24.2.5

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

24

Negation

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