Making negative statements and asking questions is fairly easy in Portuguese (at last, something easy!). To make a sentence negative, you can just prefix the verb with the word ‘não’. That's it. There are of course, other ways of making things negative, but using ‘não’ is by far the most common, and easiest.
Here are some examples of making negative statements using ‘não’:
|
Eu não como … |
I do not eat … |
|
Eles não me escrevem |
They do not write to me |
|
Não trabalhamos aqui |
We do not work here |
There are a few more things you should know about negatives. One thing you may come across is the negative usage of a strange little word: ‘algum’. This word literally means ‘some’ (as in ‘some day’) or ‘one’ (‘one day’). The feminine form of the word is ‘alguma’, and the plurals are ‘alguns’ and ‘algumas’ respectively. The equivalent of the English word ‘something’ is ‘alguma coisa’.
Why am I telling you this? Well, ‘algum’ can sometimes be used to form a negative, which seems (to me at least) a little odd. For example:
|
de modo algum |
by no means (lit. ‘of means some [none]’) |
|
de forma alguma |
in no way (lit. ‘of way some [none]’) |
|
coisa alguma |
nothing (lit. ‘thing some [none]’) |
Strange eh? Especially how swapping the words ‘alguma’ and ‘coisa’ yields completely the opposite result. I’m glad you agree. Sorry, I don't have an explanation for it - you just have to get used to it!
Here are a few more negative words that you should be aware of:
|
nada |
nothing; anything (Another weird one – I'll explain in a minute!) |
|
nenhum/nenhuma |
no; not one; not any (always followed by a noun – e.g. ‘nenhum lugar’ means ‘nowhere’ – lit. ‘not any place’) |
|
nem |
neither; nor |
|
ninguém |
nobody; no one |
|
nunca |
never; ever |
|
jamais |
never; ever |
|
proibido |
forbidden; prohibited |
|
proibido fumar |
no smoking (lit. ‘prohibited to smoke’) |
|
sem |
without |
|
sem dúvida |
no doubt |
|
indubitável |
undoubted (formal – only used when writing) |
|
contra |
against |
|
incapaz |
unable |
Some explanation is in order! Let's take the word ‘nada’. A literal translation of this would be ‘nothing’. As a one-word answer to a question, this would be acceptable (e.g. – ‘O que comes?’ – ‘Nada’. = ‘What are you eating?’ – ‘Nothing.’). However, ‘nada’ is often used in conjunction with ‘não’ – which might seem to us like a double negative, but is normal practice in Portuguese.
For example: ‘Não comemos nada’ (We are not eating anything).
In fact, in this type of sentence, the word ‘não’ is essential to make sense in Portuguese. Effectively then, the word ‘nada’ is being used in a way that we might use the word ‘anything’ – ‘we are not eating anything’ makes a little more sense (grammatically) than ‘we are not eating nothing’.
Note though, that ‘nada’ is only used to mean ‘anything’ when the sentence is negative. If a positive statement is being made (e.g. ‘I eat anything’), the words ‘qualquer coisa’ are used rather than ‘nada’ (‘Eu como qualquer coisa’), although often, the Portuguese will use ‘something’ (alguma coisa) in places where the English would use ‘anything’ (qualquer coisa). Perhaps a few more examples will help…
|
Ele não bebe nada |
He does not drink anything |
|
Não escrevo nada |
I do not write anything |
|
Ele bebe qualquer coisa |
He drinks anything |
|
Está a ver alguma coisa? |
Are you watching anything? (more on questions in a minute…) |
Similarly, the words ‘nunca’ and ‘jamais’ can mean ‘never’ or ‘ever’:
|
Nunca mais |
Never again |
|
Mais que nunca |
More than ever |
|
Ninguém jamais pensa |
Nobody ever thinks |
By the way, ‘nunca ‘is used more often than ‘jamais’ – ‘jamais’ being rather more emphatic than ‘nunca’.
Note that the word ‘nem’ can be used in place of both ‘neither’ and ‘nor’ – so when we say ‘neither x nor y’ in English, the Portuguese translation could be ‘nem x nem y’ (an alternative translation would be ‘não x nem y’).
As noted in the section on imperatives, when giving negative commands in the 2nd person (you or you all, informal), instead of using the true imperative form, you switch to the present subjunctive (the same as for other ‘persons’).
