Spanish · Chapter 16 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Indefinites: alguno, ninguno, cualquiera
The words for some, any, none and whichever - agreement, the apocopated forms, and the double-negative pattern they trigger.
The short version
Two negatives make one negative in Spanish
When nadie, nada or ninguno come after the verb, you must also put no in front of it: no veo a nadie, no tengo nada. The negatives reinforce rather than cancel. The only way to drop the no is to move the negative word in front of the verb, where one is enough: nadie viene.
No veo a nadie.
Alguno and ninguno shed a vowel before the noun
Directly in front of a masculine singular noun, alguno becomes algún and ninguno becomes ningún, accent and all. The full forms return the moment the word stands alone or follows its noun: no tengo ninguno. The feminine never shortens, and Spanish prefers the singular where English pluralises.
No hay ningún problema.
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