Affirmatives/Negatives

Question

For the negative words(nadie, nada, ningún(os)(as), tampoco, and nunca), is it always necessary to use a double negative to use these words(generally speaking)? Because someone told me that nunca can sometimes be used without a double negative. Is this true? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

You are partially correct.

Any of those words can exist alone, as a single negative, for instance:

Nunca has hecho eso?

But if a negative word comes first in the sentence, words in the second portion need to stay in the negative.

In English, we can say. I have never seen anything that pretty. Note that never is negative, but anything is (vaguely) affirmative.

But in Spanish, the correspondent to anything must also be negative.

Nunca he visto nada tan bonita.

While those are perhaps not perfect Spanish examples or common phrases, I hope they illustrate the point.

Also worth noting is that the second negative portion is singular in Spanish, even when it would be plural in English.

Didn't you see any plates?

No viste ningún plato?

hope that helps.

thanks, so for the "Didn't you see any plates?" example, if you were to put it in the affarmative, it would be Viste algunos platos? - udayt24, Oct 8, 2013

sorry, viste algún plato. one more thing, could it also work for the negative to say "Viste ningún plato?" without the no? - udayt24, Oct 8, 2013