Não... nada, não, não: Portuguese doubles its negatives

A second negative word: não stays

English avoids stacking two negatives. Portuguese stacks them. The position of the negative word (nada nothing, ninguém nobody, nunca never) decides whether não is needed:

After the verb, não is compulsory. Before it, não disappears. Nem... nem, neither... nor, follows the same logic:

• Não como carne nem peixe. - I eat neither meat nor fish.

12

1. 1Tem comida.
2. 2Não tem nada.

The empty bowl: não before the verb and nada after it, both at once. (EP says não há nada.)

Answering no: não twice

Portuguese usually answers a yes-or-no question by repeating the verb. A negative answer repeats it with não in front, so the reply often has two:

The first não answers, the second negates. Dropping the second, não, tenho, contradicts itself: the first word says no, the verb says yes.

Não can also turn a statement into a question, as in Está frio, não está?, it's cold, isn't it? That has a page of its own.