Breakdown of No le digas nada privado a nadie.
no
no, not
a
to
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
nada
nothing
nadie
no one
decir
to say, to tell
privado
private
Questions & Answers about No le digas nada privado a nadie.
Why is the verb digas instead of dices or di?
Digas is the negative tú (informal "you") command for decir (to say/tell). While the positive command is just di, negative commands follow a different rule: you take the present tense "yo" form (digo), drop the -o, and add the opposite ending. Since decir is an -ir verb, it gets the -ar ending -as to become no digas.
Why are there three negative words (No, nada, and nadie) in this sentence?
Spanish requires double (and even triple!) negatives. When negative words like nada (nothing) or nadie (nobody) come after the verb, you still must put no before the verb. While English says "Don't say anything to anyone", Spanish literally says "Don't say nothing to nobody".
Why do we need the pronoun le if the sentence already specifies a nadie (to anyone)?
In Spanish, it is very common and often required to include the indirect object pronoun (le) even when you explicitly name who is receiving the action (a nadie). This is called a redundant pronoun. It acts as an extra signpost pointing to the receiver of the action.
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