Questions & Answers about Él no ha comido ni mariscos ni nueces en su vida.
Why do we use no before the verb when we already have ni... ni (neither... nor)?
Spanish requires a double negative here. If a negative word like ni comes after the verb, you must put no (or another negative word) before the verb. While English says "He has eaten neither...", Spanish essentially says "He has not eaten neither... nor...". Could we phrase this without the no at the beginning?
Yes, but you would have to move the negative words to the front of the sentence. If you say Ni mariscos ni nueces ha comido él en su vida, the no is dropped because a negative word already appears before the verb. However, the original sentence structure is much more common in everyday Spanish. Can I drop the first ni and just say no ha comido mariscos ni nueces?
Yes, you can! Just like in English, you can choose between "He hasn't eaten seafood or nuts" (no ha comido mariscos ni nueces) and the slightly more emphatic "He has eaten neither seafood nor nuts" (no ha comido ni mariscos ni nueces). Both are grammatically correct. Why is mariscos plural here when the English translation is "seafood" (singular)?
In English, "seafood" is usually an uncountable singular noun. In Spanish, while you can say el marisco, it is incredibly common to use the plural los mariscos to refer to seafood in general. Learn Él no ha comido ni mariscos ni nueces en su vida and more in Spanish
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