Breakdown of Sigo sin atropellar a nadie en la calle.
en
in / on / at
la calle
the street
nadie
no one
seguir
to continue
sin
without
atropellar
to run over
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about Sigo sin atropellar a nadie en la calle.
"Sigo sin atropellar..." literally translates to "I continue without running over...". Is this the normal way to say "I still haven't..." in Spanish?
Yes! To express that you "still haven't" done something, Spanish commonly uses seguir sin followed by an infinitive. While you could technically say todavía no he atropellado, using seguir sin sounds very natural and emphasizes the continuation of this unchanged state.
Could I use the gerund here, like Sigo no atropellando?
No, that sounds very unnatural in Spanish. While you use seguir plus a gerund for actions you are still doing (like sigo manejando to mean "I am still driving"), when you want to express that you are still not doing something, you always use seguir sin plus an infinitive.
Why is there an a before nadie?
This is the "personal a." Even though nadie means "nobody," it refers to a person. Whenever a person (or a pronoun representing a person, like alguien or nadie) is the direct object of a verb, it requires the personal a. Here, "nobody" is the direct object of atropellar (to run over).
Doesn't sin atropellar a nadie create a double negative ("without running over nobody")?
Yes, and this is required in Spanish. The preposition sin (without) establishes a negative context. When a negative context is set up before the object, you must use a negative pronoun like nadie instead of a positive one like alguien (someone). Saying sin atropellar a alguien would sound grammatically incorrect.
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