Breakdown of Não há nenhuma pista no armário.
não
not / no
haver
to be (there is / there are)
no
in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)
nenhum
no / none / not any (quantity)
a pista
the clue / the track / the runway
o armário
the closet / the cupboard
Questions & Answers about Não há nenhuma pista no armário.
Why do we need both Não and nenhuma in this sentence?
Why does nenhum end in an "a" here (nenhuma)?
Nenhuma is an indefinite determiner, which means it has to match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Because pista (clue) is a feminine singular noun, the base word nenhum changes to its feminine singular form, nenhuma.
Does há mean "there is" or "there are"?
It means both! Há comes from the verb haver. It is used to say that something exists. It only has this one form in the present tense, so you use há whether you are talking about one single thing or multiple things.
I see no armário. Why isn't it em o armário?
In Portuguese, the preposition em (in/on/at) always combines with the definite article (the word for "the") that follows it. Since armário (closet) is masculine, em merges with the masculine "the" (o) to form the single word no.
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