Notes:
1 Nunca(and not jamás) is used in comparisons: mejor tarde que nunca‘better
late than never’.
2 For the strongest negative effect, both words are sometimes used together: Nunca
jamás volveré a prestarle mi diccionario ‘I will never (ever) lend him my dictio-
nary again’.
Ni... ni‘neither... nor’ and ni (siquiera) ‘nor’, ‘not even’
Each of these combinations is possible before and after the verb.
Niwith the meaning of ‘(not) even’ is optionally reinforced by siquiera:
Ni el queso ni las cebollas me gustan.
I do not like either cheese or onions/I like neither cheese nor
onions.
No fueron (ni) María, ni su esposo, ni sus hijos.
Neither María, nor her husband, nor their children went.
Ni (siquiera) en la clase lo entendí.
Not even in class did I understand it.
Notes:
1 Less common than the above patterns is the emphatic use of siquiera alone after
a verb:No me contestó siquiera‘He did not even answer me’.
2 Niis followed by the negatives nadie, nadaand ninguno(notalguien, algo,
alguno): No lo dije ni quería que nadie lo dijera en mi nombre‘I did not say it
nor did I want anyone to say it on my behalf’.
3 Ni que + imperfect subjunctive expresses an exclamation with a negative impli-
cation: ¡Ni que ella fuera la más lista de la clase! ‘As if she was the cleverest in
the class!’.
Ninguno ‘no’, ‘not any’, ‘none’
Ninguno can be used both as an adjective and as a pronoun, on its own
or in a double-negative construction. It agrees in gender with the noun with
which it is associated and shortens to ningúnbefore a masculine singular
noun.
It is now rarely used in the plural as an adjective, except with nouns that
are always plural in form, see 2.1.8.
Ninguna de las chicas me conoce. None of the girls know(s) me.
24.2.4
24.2.3
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
Other
negative
words
251
