Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche.

Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche. → I almost never want to go out at night (but maybe very occasionally I do).
Nunca quiero salir por la noche. → I never want to go out at night (sounds absolute and stronger).

Do I need no with casi nunca, like No casi nunca quiero salir…?

No. With this word order you do not use no:

✅ Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche.

When a negative word (or almost‑negative, like casi nunca) comes before the verb, no is normally not used.

If you move casi nunca after the verb, then you usually add no:

✅ No quiero salir casi nunca por la noche. (more emphatic, a bit heavier)
❌ Quiero salir casi nunca por la noche. (sounds wrong)

Can I put casi nunca in other positions in the sentence?

Yes, but some positions are more natural than others:

Most natural / common:

Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche. (neutral, very natural)
Por la noche casi nunca quiero salir. (emphasis on at night)

Also possible, slightly different emphasis:

No quiero salir casi nunca por la noche. (more stressed, almost complaining)

Unnatural or incorrect:

❌ Quiero casi nunca salir por la noche. (sounds odd)
❌ No casi nunca quiero salir por la noche. (wrong)

As a rule, for learners it’s safest to put casi nunca right before the conjugated verb or right after a time expression at the start:
Casi nunca quiero… / Por la noche casi nunca quiero…

Why is it quiero salir and not quiero ir?

In Spanish, salir is the usual verb to mean to go out (to leave home, to go out socially, to go out at night):

Quiero salir. = I want to go out.
Quiero ir. = I want to go (somewhere), but doesn’t by itself mean “go out” in the social sense.

So:

Quiero salir por la noche. → I want to go out at night.
Quiero ir al cine. → I want to go to the cinema.

Using ir instead of salir here would sound incomplete or change the meaning.

What’s the nuance of salir por la noche? Does it mean “go out partying”?

Salir por la noche is quite general: go out at night. Depending on context, it can mean:

simply going out of the house at night (for anything), or
going out socially: bars, restaurants, meeting friends.

In Spain, if you specifically mean go out partying, people also say:

Salir de fiesta. (go out partying)
Salir por ahí. (go out around town, informal, very common)

But in many contexts salir por la noche will be understood as “go out in the evenings / at night (socially).”

Why is it por la noche and not en la noche or de noche?

For general parts of the day, Spanish normally uses por + la:

por la mañana – in the morning
por la tarde – in the afternoon
por la noche – at night / in the evenings

In Spain:

por la noche is the most standard way to say at night / in the evenings (in general).
de noche is also correct and means at night / by night, often a bit more contrastive: “at night as opposed to during the day”.
en la noche is much less common; it sounds more Latin American than Peninsular Spanish.

So, for Spain, por la noche is the best and most natural choice here.

Could I say Casi nunca quiero salir de noche instead? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Casi nunca quiero salir de noche.

It’s correct and understandable in Spain. The nuance is small:

por la noche = neutral “at night / in the evenings”, used a lot.
de noche = “at night (rather than by day)”; sometimes it sounds a bit more contrastive or descriptive.

In everyday speech in Spain, por la noche is more frequent, but de noche doesn’t sound wrong.

Does quiero here mean a habitual thing (in general), or just right now?

The present tense in Spanish can express both now and general habits. Here it’s naturally understood as habitual:

Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche.
→ In general, I hardly ever feel like going out at night.

If you wanted to stress right now, you’d usually add something:

Ahora mismo no quiero salir por la noche.
Hoy no quiero salir por la noche.

Without a time word, the default reading is habit / tendency.

How would I say I hardly ever go out at night instead of “I hardly ever want to go out at night”?

Then you change the verb from querer (want) to salir (go out) as the main verb:

Casi nunca salgo por la noche.
→ I hardly ever go out at night.

Compare:

Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche. → I hardly ever want to go out at night.
Casi nunca salgo por la noche. → I hardly ever go out at night (maybe sometimes I go out even if I don’t feel like it).

How would I say this with nunca instead of casi nunca?

Two common options:

Negative word first (no no needed):
- Nunca quiero salir por la noche.
  → I never want to go out at night.
With no and nunca later in the sentence:
- No quiero salir nunca por la noche.
  → Also “I never want to go out at night”, but sounds more emphatic.

For learners, the first is simpler: Nunca quiero salir por la noche.

Is there any difference in how people in Spain vs Latin America would say this?

The original sentence is perfectly natural in Spain and also widely understood in Latin America:

Casi nunca quiero salir por la noche.

Possible differences:

In many Latin American countries, en la noche is more common than in Spain:
- Casi nunca quiero salir en la noche. (more Latin American flavour)
Vocabulary for “going out” can vary:
- Spain: salir de fiesta, salir por ahí
- Many countries: salir de rumba, salir de juerga, etc.

But your sentence with por la noche and salir works fine everywhere and sounds especially natural for Spain.

How could I say this more politely or softly, rather than a blunt quiero?

In Spanish, quiero can sound a bit direct. To sound softer or more polite, you can use expressions like:

Casi nunca me apetece salir por la noche.
→ I hardly ever feel like going out at night.
Casi nunca tengo ganas de salir por la noche.
→ I almost never feel like going out at night.

Both sound more about your mood than a firm “I want / I don’t want”, which is often nicer in conversation.