Spanish grammar · interactive
Spanish Negation Exercises
In Spanish, ‘no veo nada’ — two negatives — is perfect grammar. Drill no, nada, nadie, nunca, and ningún until the pattern is automatic.
These exercises drill Spanish negation — from simple no + verb to the double negatives that feel wrong to English speakers but are required in Spanish. You’ll negate real sentences and get an explanation with every answer.
The short version: put no directly before the verb; if a negative word like nada, nadie, or nunca comes after the verb, you keep the no (no veo nada is correct, not an error); and if the negative word moves before the verb, the no disappears (nadie viene).
Try the negation exercise
Choose the option that makes the sentence correctly negative. You’ll see why after each answer.
hablo francés.
I don’t speak French.
How it works
- 1
Read the sentence
A real Spanish sentence appears with the negation blanked out.
- 2
Make it negative
Pick the word — or the absence of one — that negates it correctly. Instant feedback.
- 3
Learn the why
Each answer explains the before-the-verb / after-the-verb logic, so you stop applying English rules.
What you’ll learn
- Where no goes — directly before the verb, always
- Why double negatives (no veo nada) are required, not wrong
- The drop-the-no rule when nadie, nunca, or ningún leads the sentence
- The ninguno → ningún shortening before masculine singular nouns
Unlearn the English rule
English teaches that two negatives cancel out — ‘I don’t see nothing’ is either wrong or ironic. Spanish works the opposite way: negation is a feature of the whole sentence, and every indefinite word inside a negative sentence must agree with it. No veo nada, no conozco a nadie, no voy nunca — the negatives stack, and stacking them is the only correct option. Using algo, alguien, or siempre after a negated verb is the actual error.
A cleaner mental model than ‘double negative’: think of no as flipping a switch for the whole clause. Once the switch is flipped, algo becomes nada, alguien becomes nadie, siempre becomes nunca, alguno becomes ninguno, and también becomes tampoco. They’re not extra negations — they’re the negative-mode forms of the same words.
The position rule and its traps
There’s exactly one structural choice to make: does the negative word come before or after the verb? After the verb, you need no in front: no viene nadie. Before the verb, the negative word does the job alone and no must disappear: nadie viene. Both orders are correct and mean the same thing — but mixing them (‘no nadie viene’) is always wrong.
Two smaller traps round out the topic. Ninguno behaves like bueno: it shortens to ningún before a masculine singular noun (ningún problema) but stays full when it stands alone. And unlike English ‘any’, ninguno is almost always singular — no tengo ningún libro, not ‘ningunos libros’. Finally, tampoco is the negative of también: —No me gusta. —A mí tampoco (‘me neither’).
Quick reference
| Pattern | Example |
|---|---|
| no + verb | No hablo francés — I don’t speak French |
| no + verb + nada/nadie/nunca | No veo nada — required double negative |
| Negative word before verb → drop no | Nadie viene · Nunca como carne |
| ninguno → ningún + masc. sing. noun | No tengo ningún problema |
| tampoco = negative of también | Yo tampoco — me neither |
Frequently asked questions
Are double negatives wrong in Spanish?
No — they’re required. No veo nada (‘I don’t see nothing’) is the only correct way to say ‘I don’t see anything’. In a negative Spanish sentence, every indefinite word (nada, nadie, nunca, ninguno) must also be negative.
Do you say ‘no nadie’ in Spanish?
Never. If nadie comes before the verb, it negates the sentence by itself: Nadie viene. You only use no when the negative word follows the verb: No viene nadie. Both are correct; combining them is not.
What’s the difference between ningún and ninguno?
Same word, different position. Ninguno shortens to ningún directly before a masculine singular noun (ningún problema), and stays ninguno when it stands alone (—¿Cuántos? —Ninguno). The feminine ninguna never shortens.
What’s the difference between nunca and jamás?
Both mean ‘never’ and follow the same rules; jamás is simply more emphatic. You can even combine them for maximum drama: nunca jamás — ‘never ever’.
Make negation second nature
The rules fit on an index card; using them at conversation speed takes reps. HablaCore drills Spanish negation in real AI-generated sentences with instant feedback on every answer.
Practice negation in real sentences