Not in a very agreeable mood today? There are a number of negative expressions to counteract all those smiley, happy people. Some very common negative expressions include the following:

non cambiare una virgola (not to change a single word)

non dire una sillaba (not to say a word)

non per la quale (not to be trusted)

Non vale! (That’s not fair/that’s cheating!)

fuori dal nulla (out of the blue)

buono a nulla (good for nothing)

Other common phrases that rely on the negatives are listed in below:

NEGATIVE PHRASES
 
da niente
 not important
 
mai
 never
 
nessuno
 no one, nobody
 
niente (nulla)
 nothing
 
né...né
 neither...nor
 
nessun
 no, not...any
 
neanche, nemmeno, neppure
 not even
 
per niente
 at all
 

Note that nessun is used as an adjective, and must agree in gender and number with the thing that it describes. Moreover, nessun and niente usually follow the verb when they act as the object. When one of these words is the subject of the sentence, its position can vary:

Nessuno parla. (No one speaks.)

Neinte ci piace. (We like nothing at all.)

Non parla nessuno. (No one speaks.)

To review the negatives, compare the two sets of phrases in the following table:

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PHRASES
 
POSITIVE
 NEGATIVE
 
Ha fame. (She is hungry.)
 Non ha fame. (She isn’t hungry.)
 
Ho comprato qualcosa. (I bought something.)
 Non ho comprato niente. (I didn’t buy anything.)
 
Ride sempre. (He always laughs.)
 Non ride mai. (He never laughs.)
 
Vediamo qualcuno. (We see someone.)
 Non vediamo nessuno. (We don’t see anyone.)