jamas and nunca

Question

I'm confused about "jamás" and "nunca".

When should one use "jamás" and when should one use "nunca"?

Welcome to the forum, :) - 00494d19, Dec 14, 2011

good question - fugitivus, Dec 14, 2011

Answer 1

HI Manolete, well, we actually even use them together:

No haré eso nunca jamás.

You can use both, or just one, the words are interchangeable

Welcome to the forum

Answer 2

Well, we actually even use them together:

No haré eso nunca jamás.

You can use both, or just one, indifferently

I'm not sure that the adverb "indifferently" conveys the meaning that you might have intended. The use of the word "indifferently" here appears to imply that there is no difference in using one or both of these adverbs (nunca or jamás) within the same clause (i.e. it implies that there is no difference between using "nunca," "jamás," or "nunca jamás").

I think that it might have been better to say that they can be used "relatively interchangeably." That is to say that both words are fairly interchangeable, and that choice is largely a matter of style. To avoid confusion, I would point out that expressions involving the these two words together can alter the sense of the sentence slightly. Namely, the repetition of these negative adjectives generally has the effect of adding emphasis to the negation. For example, to be more emphatic, we might employ such repetitive expressions as:

?nunca jamás...
?nunca, pero nunca...
?jamás, pero jamás...
?jamás de los jamases...
?nunca jamás de los jamases...

All of which would be a bit more emphatic than simply saying "nunca" or "jamás."

Due to the fact that standard English does not allow for the use of double negatives, we do not see such constructions. However, you might consider these "compound" expressions to be analogous to English expressions such as:

?Never ever...
?Never, and I mean never...
?Never, ever, ever...

All of which would be more emphatic than simply saying "never."

By the way, next time you might try a quick search of our archives—this question has actually been asked repeatedly in the past, and there are already a good number of answers available on this topic.

oh yes, interchangeably, that was it, :) - 00494d19, Dec 14, 2011

By the way, next time you might try a quick search of our archives—this question has actually been asked repeatedly in the past, and there are already a good number of answers available on this topic. >--lol, well, I had not seen this one so often - 00494d19, Dec 14, 2011

but you are right, jejejej, good catch:) - 00494d19, Dec 14, 2011

Answer 3

¡Nunca, jamás! = Never, ever!

They can be used together or separate. !Nunca te lo diré! --- ¡Jamás te lo diré!, Nunca, jamás te lo diré! = I'll never tell you!