NexoConnecting Spanish
Negatives, prepositions & connectors
Make the relationship between actions, people, places, and ideas explicit.
Spanish can place one negative word before the verb or reinforce no with a negative word after it. Prepositions such as a, de, en, con, por, and para encode relationships rather than fixed English translations, while connectors show sequence, contrast, cause, and result between clauses.
The useful model
Start with meaning, then choose the form.
Spanish negative agreement is systematic: Nadie viene places the negative word before the verb, while No viene nadie places no before the verb and reinforces it afterward. Both express one negative meaning.
Prepositions and connectors name relationships. Choose them from source, destination, location, company, cause, purpose, sequence, contrast, or consequence—not from an isolated English word that may cover several Spanish relationships.
Decision routine
Work through the message in a dependable order.
Name the relationship
Decide whether the message needs negation, movement, origin, location, company, cause, purpose, sequence, contrast, or result.
Choose the Spanish frame
Use the position and connector that normally express that relationship, including negative agreement when a negative follows the verb.
Read the complete clause
Confirm that the connector joins two ideas logically instead of merely translating the nearest English word.
Check the idea
Can you explain the decision?
You place nadie after the verb. Does the sentence also need no before the verb?
Reveal the answer
A negative word after the verb normally participates in Spanish negative agreement with no before the verb.
Learn it in context