Grammar · Building sentences · A1 · 10 min

Saying no

no, ne…pas, non, nu, and why 'nothing' needs two negatives.

Latin NŌN 'not' stands before the verb in Spanish and Catalan (no), Italian (non), Portuguese (não) and Romanian (nu). French weakened it to ne and added a second word after the verb: ne… pas. In everyday speech French then dropped the ne, so the negation now lives after the verb.

Non parlo tedesco.
No hablo alemán.
Je ne parle pas allemand.
Não falo alemão.
Nu vorbesc germana.
No parlo alemany.
I don't speak German.
Non lo so.
No lo sé.
Je sais pas.
Não sei.
Nu știu.
No ho sé.
I don't know.
Spoken French drops ne (written: je ne sais pas). Spanish and Italian add lo, Catalan ho, 'it'; Portuguese and Romanian need nothing.
Non vedo niente.
No veo nada.
Je ne vois rien.
Não vejo nada.
Nu văd nimic.
No veig res.
I can't see anything.
Double negation is normal in all six.
Nessuno lo sa.
Nadie lo sabe.
Personne ne le sait.
Ninguém sabe.
Nimeni nu știe.
Ningú no ho sap.
Nobody knows.
With the negative word first, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese drop the 'not'; written French keeps ne, Romanian always keeps nu, and Catalan may keep no (colloquially ningú ho sap).
Non sono mai stato a Parigi.
Nunca he estado en París.
Je ne suis jamais allé à Paris.
Nunca estive em Paris.
N-am fost niciodată la Paris.
No he estat mai a París.
I've never been to Paris.
Non fumo più.
Ya no fumo.
Je ne fume plus.
Não fumo mais.
Nu mai fumez.
Ja no fumo.
I don't smoke anymore.
Portuguese mais and Romanian mai are MAGIS 'more', doing the job of French plus and Italian più.

The negative words

	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan	Latin source
nothing	nada	rien	niente, nulla	nada	nimic	res	NĀTAM (es, pt), RĒM (fr, ca); niente disputed
nobody	nadie	personne	nessuno	ninguém	nimeni	ningú	PERSŌNAM (fr); NĒMINEM (ro)
never	nunca, jamás	jamais	mai	nunca	niciodată	mai	NUMQUAM (es, pt); (IAM) MAGIS (fr, it, ca)
no longer	ya no	ne… plus	non… più	não… mais	nu mai	ja no	PLŪS (fr, it); MAGIS (pt, ro)
not at all	en absoluto	pas du tout	per niente	de jeito nenhum	deloc	gens

The sisters

Not a step, not a crumb

French pas is Latin PASSUM 'a step': 'I don't walk (a step)'. Old French had other reinforcers, point (PUNCTUM 'a dot') and mie (MĪCAM 'a crumb'). Italian has that crumb too: colloquial non è mica vero 'it's not true at all'. Over time the reinforcer became the negation itself and the weak ne faded, a cycle linguists call Jespersen's cycle. Catalan has pas as well, but only as optional emphasis (no ho sé pas 'I really don't know'), and Brazilian Portuguese is running its own cycle: speech adds a second não at the end (não sei não) and can keep only that one (sei não). Words like rien and Catalan res (RĒM 'a thing'), personne 'a person' and Spanish and Portuguese nada (NĀTAM, '(a thing) born') were positive once; they turned negative from keeping company with a negation. Romanian niciodată is transparent: 'not even once'.