Eu não quero comer nada doce agora.

I do not want to eat anything sweet now.

Breakdown of Eu não quero comer nada doce agora.

• eu: I
• comer: to eat
• agora: now
• querer: to want
• não: not
• doce: sweet

Questions & Answers about Eu não quero comer nada doce agora.

Why is não used together with nada? Isn’t that a double negative?

In Portuguese, it’s normal and grammatically correct to use não and nada (or other negative words) in the same sentence. This is called negative concord, meaning the negatives work together to emphasize the negation. So não quero comer nada (literally “I don’t want to eat nothing”) is correct and means “I don’t want to eat anything.”

Why do we say nada doce instead of something like nada de doce?

Nada can be used as an indefinite pronoun on its own, so you just attach the adjective after it: nada doce (nothing sweet). You might see constructions like nada de doce in rarer, more colloquial contexts (literally “nothing of sweet”), but nada doce is the standard way to say “no sweet thing”/“nothing sweet.”

Could I say Eu não quero comer nada agora to mean “I don’t want to eat anything now” without focusing on sweetness?

Yes, absolutely. Nada by itself means “nothing.” Adding doce specifies the type of food you want to avoid (anything sweet). Without doce, it’s just “I don’t want to eat anything.”

Is there a reason we use agora instead of other words like hoje?

Agora specifically means “now” or “at this moment,” while hoje means “today.” If you say hoje, it means you don’t want to eat anything sweet all day. If you say agora, you’re talking about just this current moment.

Why do we place agora at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning?

In Portuguese, adverbs can appear in various positions. You can say Agora eu não quero comer nada doce or Eu não quero comer nada doce agora. Both are correct, but placing agora at the end is common for emphasis in spoken Portuguese, indicating that right at this moment you don’t want anything sweet.