Breakdown of Cuentan que la bruja no duerme nunca.
no
no, not
dormir
to sleep
que
that / than
nunca
never
contar
to tell (a story/joke)
la bruja
the witch
Questions & Answers about Cuentan que la bruja no duerme nunca.
Who is "they" in cuentan, and why isn't there a subject pronoun like ellos here?
There is no specific "they" here. This is an impersonal sentence. By using the 3rd-person plural (cuentan) without a subject pronoun, it indicates that "people in general say" or "the story goes." Adding ellos would completely change the meaning, making it sound like a specific, known group of people is telling the story.
Why use cuentan instead of dicen for "they say"?
Why is it spelled cuentan and not contan?
The verb contar (to tell/count) is a stem-changing verb. In the present tense, the o in the root changes to ue for most forms, including the "they" form. That is why it becomes cuentan.
Why does the sentence use both no and nunca (no duerme nunca)?
In Spanish, double negatives are perfectly normal and required when a negative word (like nunca) comes after the verb. You must put no before the verb to make the sentence negative. You could also just say nunca duerme (moving nunca before the verb and dropping the no), which means exactly the same thing.
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