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Lesson 13A1

Negation

निषेध

Spanish negates a sentence with a single word, no, placed right before the verb — and Hindi negates almost everything with a single word too, नहीं, in the same position, so this is one of the most direct one-to-one matches in the whole course.

Grammar Comparison

व्याकरण तुलना

no immediately before the verb — a near-perfect match for नहीं

Spanish

No como carne. (I don't eat meat.)

Hindi

मैं मांस नहीं खाता।

Hindi's नहीं sits directly before the verb (मांस नहीं खाता), and Spanish's no does exactly the same job in exactly the same spot — No como carne. This is one of the rare grammar points in this course where you can translate word-for-word and get a correct sentence in both directions.

Double negatives are normal and required in Spanish, not in Hindi

Spanish

No tengo nada. (I don't have anything — literally 'I don't have nothing')

Hindi

मेरे पास कुछ नहीं है।

Hindi's कुछ नहीं ('nothing') already carries the full negative meaning on its own — कुछ isn't itself negative, नहीं alone does that work. Spanish, by contrast, requires no and a negative word like nada ('nothing') to appear together in the same sentence — No tengo nada, not just Tengo nada — so unlike Hindi, dropping either half sounds wrong.

Vocabulary

शब्दावली

SpanishPronunciationHindiEnglish
nonohनहींnahīñno / not
nadaNAH-dahकुछ नहींkuch nahīñnothing
nadieNAH-dyehकोई नहींkoī nahīñnobody
nuncaNOON-kahकभी नहींkabhī nahīñnever
tampocotahm-POH-kohयह भी नहींyah bhī nahīñneither / either