Basic negation: no before the verb

Erklärung

Basic negation is just no placed immediately before the verb: no trabajo hoy, no entiendo, no vino. Nothing comes between no and the verb except object pronouns, which stay attached to the verb group: no lo sé, no te escucho, no me lo dijeron.

There's no auxiliary 'do' and no special question form — you negate and question the same simple verb: ¿no vienes?, ¿no te gustó? In compound tenses, no goes before haber: no he terminado, no había llegado.

When answering a question negatively, Spanish often shows two no's: the first answers, the second negates the verb — No, no quiero; No, no puedo hoy. The doubling is normal, not emphatic.

Beispiele

Verwandte Regeln

• Negative words: nada, nadie, nunca, ninguno, tampoco, ni
• Double negation is mandatory: no veo nada