Blanca
Professional Teacher
Learning Article : Different Ways To Say No In Spanish

Discuss the Article : Different Ways To Say No In Spanish

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How many ways do you say "no" to people in your native language? Spanish offers speakers plenty of expressive ways to address other people's requests in the negative. You might even find letting people down fun with some of these...

Nov 9, 2016 12:00 AM
Comments · 8
4

u should also take into consideration how to say no in some Latin American Countries, as i observed those u mentioned are only used in Spain.


            i might not be able to make reference to other Latin American Countries except mine, which is Argentina. Therefore, here we go, some different ways to say no here.


   Ni a palos!:   we could translate it as: Not even if u hit me with a stick, or rod. It is a way for saying no strongly.


  Ni loco:  saying no strongly as in the previus one.


 NI a gancho: strongly way as well, could be the same as not even with a hook, hahahaha.


  Ni en pedo: estar en pedo in Argentina is to be drunk, so we do use this way when we emphasize our no. (as you can appreciate we used ni quite a lot)

 

  Would be great if some others post more ways for saying no from different countries. 

November 11, 2016
2

In my country we use a lot "nada que ver!", especially the young generation.  I'm not young and I do use it very often with friends and family.  It literally means "there's nothing to see!", but it means "no, end of question!"  I guess they use this expression in other South American countries as well.

Some of the expressions you mention are used throughout Latin America, depending on the countries, one expression or another.

November 13, 2016
2

How interesting! :) Muchas gracias, Blanca!

Sólo añado que it's important to note the differences between varieties of Spanish and the context. Where I live for example, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I think that the words "ni hablar" can actually be taken as a "yes" as well.

For example:
– "¿Quedó lindo el techo?"
– "¡Ni hablar!"

Or:
— "¿Comiste torta?"
— "¡Ni hablar!"


In these examples the words ¡ni hablar! to me mean a strong and resounding "yes!" but I asked a couple of friends who are from here and they said that to them it's an ambiguous response and depends on body language and context.

Also we might use "ni en broma" instead of "ni de broma", or "ni empedo" (which is a little vulgar) instead of "ni borracho".

Others like "ni harto vino" or "ni en pintura" sound very foreign to me while "¡ni se te ocurra!" and "¡de ninguna manera!" are very common here. :)

¡Saludos!
– Gau.

November 9, 2016
1

Blanca,

Gracias por su artículo.

Yo vivo en España. A veces, un extraño se me acercó y pidió que le prestara cigarrillo. ¿Cómo se dice NO en este caso?

Gracias,

May 9, 2018
1
Great!
November 13, 2016
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