Making a Present-Tense Sentence Negative
One small word makes a Spanish statement negative. Place no immediately before the conjugated verb and keep every other part of the sentence intact.
Learning objective
Place no before a conjugated verb to make a simple negative statement.
Picture a small no card placed directly in front of the working verb. Hablo español means I speak Spanish; No hablo español means I do not speak Spanish. The working, or conjugated, verb is the form changed for its subject. In this pair, hablo is conjugated for the speaker.
Keep the rest of a simple sentence in place when you add no. Ella vive aquí becomes Ella no vive aquí, meaning She does not live here. Tenemos café becomes No tenemos café, meaning We do not have coffee. Spanish does not need a separate helper equivalent to English do or does in these negatives.
Place no before the conjugated verb group. That group contains the working verb and any short pronoun closely linked to it. A subject such as yo or ella can appear before no. A short pronoun such as me can sit between no and the verb: No me gusta el té means I do not like tea.
Negating a statement changes its truth, so choose examples that really express your meaning. No estudio hoy means I am not studying today, not that studying is bad. Hoy means today. Read a positive and its negative as a pair, listening for the one early word that reverses the message.
Examples
Hablo español. / No hablo español.
I speak Spanish. / I do not speak Spanish.
No immediately precedes hablo.
Ella no vive aquí.
She does not live here.
The subject remains before no, and aquí means here.
No tenemos café.
We do not have coffee.
Spanish uses no without an added do not helper.
Hoy no estudio.
Today I am not studying.
Hoy may move for emphasis, while no stays with estudio.
Common mistake
- Instead of
- Hablo no español.
- Try
- No hablo español.
Putting no before español can sound as though only the language label is being contrasted, and it does not form the intended basic sentence negative. To reverse the whole statement, place no immediately before the conjugated verb hablo: no hablo.
Practice
Try it yourself
Run a truth-switch drill. Change Vivo aquí, Ella tiene café, Queremos comida, and Estudias hoy into negative statements. Then return only the second sentence to its positive form.