Breakdown of No le des la contraseña a nadie.
no
no, not
a
to
dar
to give
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
la
the (feminine)
nadie
no one
la contraseña
password
Questions & Answers about No le des la contraseña a nadie.
Why is the verb des here instead of das or da?
When telling someone not to do something (a negative command), Spanish uses a different verb form than it does for statements or positive commands. For the informal "you" (tú), negative commands are built using a form called the present subjunctive. Because dar (to give) is an irregular verb, its negative command form becomes no des (don't give).
Can I attach le to the end of the verb, like no desle?
Why is there a le in this sentence if we already say a nadie?
This is a common Spanish quirk called a "redundant pronoun." Even though a nadie clearly states who shouldn't receive the password, Spanish still requires the indirect object pronoun le before the verb to point to that person. It is basically saying, "Don't to-them give the password to anyone."
Why does the sentence use both no and nadie? Doesn't that mean "Don't give the password to nobody"?
Literally, yes! While English avoids double negatives, Spanish requires them in cases like this. When a negative word like nadie (nobody/anyone) comes after the verb, you must also put a no before the verb to make the sentence grammatically correct.
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