Breakdown of A veces veo una sombra, pero no hay nadie.
pero
but
no
no, not
una
a, an (feminine)
ver
to see / to look / appear
Questions & Answers about A veces veo una sombra, pero no hay nadie.
Why does the sentence use both no and nadie? Doesn't that mean 'there isn't nobody'?
In Spanish, double negatives are perfectly normal and actually required in this structure. When a negative word like nadie (nobody) comes after the verb, you must put a no before the verb. So, no hay nadie is the standard way to say 'there is nobody' or 'there isn't anybody'.
Could I put nadie before the verb and just say 'nadie hay' to avoid the double negative?
Theoretically, you can put negative words before the verb to drop the no (for example, nadie vino means 'nobody came'). However, with the verb hay (there is/are), native speakers almost always use the double negative no hay nadie. Saying nadie hay sounds very unnatural in Spanish.
Why is it a veces instead of just veces for 'sometimes'?
A veces is a fixed phrase that translates to 'sometimes' or 'at times'. The word veces on its own just means 'times' in the sense of occurrences (like dos veces for 'two times'). You need the a at the start for the phrase to mean 'sometimes'.
Why doesn't the sentence say yo veo for 'I see'?