Breakdown of Al principio, no entendía nada.
no
no, not
entender
to understand
nada
nothing
el principio
the beginning (al principio = at first)
Questions & Answers about Al principio, no entendía nada.
The lesson is about al + infinitive, but is principio an infinitive here?
No, principio is a noun meaning beginning. Even though this lesson teaches al plus an infinitive (like al salir for upon leaving), al principio is just a common set phrase meaning at first or in the beginning. Here, al is just the standard contraction of the preposition a and the article el.
Why use the imperfect tense entendía instead of the preterite entendí?
Why are there two negative words (no and nada) in this sentence?
Spanish frequently uses double negatives. When a negative word like nada (meaning nothing or anything) comes after the verb, you must put a no before the verb. Literally, it translates to I did not understand nothing, which is perfectly correct grammar in Spanish.
Since entendía can mean , , , or understood, how do we know who the subject is?