Alguien escucha el grito, pero no hay nadie en la sombra.

Questions & Answers about Alguien escucha el grito, pero no hay nadie en la sombra.

Why does alguien use the él/ella form of the verb (escucha)?
Indefinite pronouns like alguien (someone) and nadie (nobody/anyone) are always treated as singular. Even though "someone" could refer to anyone, you conjugate the verb exactly as you would for él, ella, or usted.
Why is it no hay nadie (literally "there is not nobody") instead of just hay nadie?
This is the famous Spanish double negative! If a negative word like nadie comes after the verb, you are required to put no before the verb. In English, a double negative is usually incorrect, but in Spanish, saying hay nadie is grammatically wrong.
Could we move nadie to the front and say nadie hay to avoid the double negative?
With most verbs, you can do that! For example, Nadie escucha (Nobody hears) is perfectly fine and drops the no. However, with the existence verb hay (there is), putting the subject first sounds very unnatural, so native speakers almost exclusively say no hay nadie.
Why do we use hay here instead of está?
We use hay (there is / there are) to talk about the general existence of someone or something, especially when they are unidentified. Since nadie is indefinite, we use hay. You would use está (is located) for a specific, known subject, like El hombre no está en la sombra (The man is not in the shadow).

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