How to Make Negative Sentences or Questions in Spanish

Learning to form negative sentences in Spanish is important.

Many high schools and junior high schools offer Spanish classes. Though Spanish is easy to learn in some ways (the syntactical structure of sentences is similar in English), in other ways it can be difficult. One challenge is learning to form negative sentences and questions. Once you know the formation technique, this task can be quite easy.

Instructions

1. In English, write on a piece of paper the negative sentence you would like to form in Spanish. For example, you might want to say, "I do not live in Spain." The sentence can also be in the form of a question as negative questions are formed the same way. The question form would read, "Do I live in Spain?"

2. Underline the portion of the sentence that would make it positive rather than negative. For example, if your sentence is "I do not live in Spain," underline "I do live in Spain" and not the "not."

3. Form this underlined base sentence in Spanish. For the sentence "I do live in Spain," the translation would be "Vivo en Espana."

4. Locate the verb within the base sentence. For the sentence, "Vivo en Espana," the verb is "vivo" meaning "I live."

5. Place the word "no" before the verb. The sentence "Vivo en Espana" would become "No vivo en Espana."

References

• Lingolex; "Basic Spanish"
• Study Spanish; "Negation"