Making Negative Sentences

Question

I've recently seen several native Spanish speakers saying that you should not use double negatives, but I thought you were supposed to in Spanish. Now I'm not sure how to do it. If just one person had said it, I would think they just made a mistake, but I've seen it several times, so now I'm unsure. This is my main question: Is this some kind of trend, or are the people who say this simply wrong?

For example:

I don't see anyone -- No veo a nadie. I don't have anything. -- No tengo nada.

I thought the above Spanish examples were correct, but now I'm wondering if they should say:

No veo a alguien. No tengo algo.

I hope these last two examples are not correct. They just don't look as good as the first two.

Your first examples are correct. The second two are absolutely incorrect - 005faa61, Jul 8, 2013

Well, that's good to know. Thank you. :) - GraceM, Jul 8, 2013

Answer 1

For example:

I don't see anyone -- No veo a nadie. I don't have anything. -- No tengo nada.

I thought the above Spanish examples were correct, but now I'm wondering if they should say:

No veo a alguien. No tengo algo.

I don't see anyone = No vea=o a nadie I don't have anything = No tengo nada

No veo a alguien... = I don't see someone... No tengo algo... = I don't have something...

See?

EDITED for Grace:

No veo a alguien que deseo ver - I don't see someone I want to see.

No tengo algo que siempre he querido = I don;t have something that I have always wanted.

Better now?

Not exactly, but thanks. :) - GraceM, Jul 8, 2013

That confuses me too. Different from what we were taught, but, I´ll say in general, that I often find early grammar rules, are over generalizations that we´re taught, to keep things initially manageable. Darn, now I want to know more. - rogspax, Jul 8, 2013

Grace, you are welcome, and please look at my edited message. - chileno, Jul 8, 2013

Rogspax, talk to me in Skype... ;) - chileno, Jul 8, 2013

Yes, thank you. - GraceM, Jul 9, 2013

Answer 2

Don't use double negations if you want to sound odd in Spanish. Nevertheless, there are situations where you might not to use them, but those are exceptions, not the rule.

Not using double negations is like trying to imitate the English, and this practice is far away from keeping and saving the identity and integrity of the Spanish language, and that's a very strong reason why I don't share such 'trend'.

I think it is necessary to remember this: Limpia, fija y da esplendor.

Thank you. That's helpful. :) - GraceM, Jul 8, 2013

Answer 3

Well, I¨m obviously not a native, but we definitely learned what Andre said; once the sentence is negative, all components negative. They also become singular in expression.

Tengo dos bolígrafos. No tengo ningún bolígrafo.

Tengo algunas cosas azules. No tengo ninguna cosa azul.

Grace, I wonder if there were maybe a couple specific examples that are exceptions that you happened to notice. I.e. there might be a place where one doesn´t use what we would call a double negative, but in general, one still does.

And thank you. :) - GraceM, Jul 8, 2013

I see what you mean. I think you're saying basically the same thing chileno said. It makes sense. I'm starting to think that the people who prefer only one negative in a sentence just have a personal preference. - GraceM, Jul 8, 2013

Answer 4

There was a post using bad grammer to show the literal translation. It is not so much double negatives that is an English thing. In Spanish if the sentence is negative it is all negative.

No tengo nada tampoco. More than double negative.

Tengo algo también.

I am still learning myself. So there may be some exceptions I am unaware of. - 00551866, Jul 8, 2013

Thanks, I'm still curious, though, because I've seen this happening not only here at SD but also through Skype, and the people who use only one negative seem to be from a certain country, but that might have nothing to do with it. - GraceM, Jul 8, 2013

Answer 5

Thanks Chileno, I get it.

No tengo nada. I have nothing, nothing at all.

No tengo algo ... . I have things but not the something ... .

No tengo algo para hacer las galletas. The secret ingredient.

No veo a nadie. I see no one at all.

No veo a alguien ... . I see people but not the someone ... .

There you go, I hope my edited message will be clearer now for Grace. :) - chileno, Jul 8, 2013