This lesson will teach you how to say "no" in Spanish. In Spansih, this is know as "negation". In a negative Spanish sentence, one negative must appear immediately before the verb (and any accompanying direct or indirect object pronouns).

Yo no quiero ensalada. - I do NOT want salad.
Yo no soy médico. - I am not a doctor.
Yo no tengo dinero. - I don't have money.
Ellos no están tristes. - They are not sad.

We promised to teach you how to say "no" in Spanish, so we must make you aware that Spanish also has many other negative words that are used along with "no" or without it.

nada - nothing
nadie - nobody, no one
ninguno - none, no one
ninguna - none, no one
ningunos - not any
nunca - never
jamás - never
tampoco - neither, not either
ni tampoco - nor

These other negatives may appear somewhere after the verb as in the examples below.

Ella no durmió nada.
She did not sleep at all.

El no sabe nada.
He doesn't know anything.

Remember to convert indefinite words (i.e, “something”, “anybody”, etc.) to their negative equivalents and to avoid the plural form of "ningún" unless it modifies a noun which is always used in the plural (e.g., ningún libro, but ningunos pantalones):

No tenemos ningún diccionario.
We don't have any dictionaries.

At first, how to say "no" in Spanish may seem complicated, but you will quickly be telling everyone "no" with a little practice!