Negatives and Questions in Spanish and English

No entiendo = I do not understand

Why in English do we use four words, while in Spanish we use only two?

To negate a sentence in Spanish, typically we add 'no' before the verb.

Examples in Spanish:

Voy a la escuela hoy. (affirmative)
No voy a la escuela hoy. (negative)

Como una hamburguesa. (affirmative)
No como una hamburguesa. (negative)

Fácil, ¿no? ... Easy, isn't it?

Examples in English:

I am going to school today. (affirmative)
I am not going to school today. (negative)

I am eating a hamburger. (affirmative)
I am not eating a hamburger. (negative)

Un poco complicado, ¿no? ... A bit complicated, isn't it? (Why do we use 'not' instead of 'no', for example?)

Consider how many different sentences in English can be expressed with two simple words in Spanish:

No estudia = She does not study. / She doesn't study.
No estudia = She is not studying. / She isn't studying.
No estudia = She is not going to study. / She isn't going to study.
No estudia = She will not study. / She won't study.
¿No estudia? = Does she not study? / Doesn't she study?
¿No estudia? = Is she not studying? / Isn't she studying?
¿No estudia? = Is she not going to study? / Isn't she going to study?
¿No estudia? = Will she not study? / Won't she study?

While Spanish is simple in both negation and question-formation, English is likely to be less ambiguous.

NEGATIVES IN SPANISH? Simply add no.

NEGATIVES IN ENGLISH? Use one of the following: don't, doesn't, isn't, aren't, am not

QUESTION FORMATION IN SPANISH? Simply add question marks: ¿?

QUESTION FORMATION IN ENGLISH? Add auxiliary verb (do/does) for Yes/No questions, and switch order of subject and verb: You are --> Are you ...? / You do --> Do you?

Auxiliary Verbs and Words in English:

These are meaningless "helper" words used for forming questions and negatives in English. DO/DOES/DID and HAS/HAVE/HAD are the most common auxiliary verbs.

Examples:

Do ---- you ---- sing?
(Aux) (Subj) (Verb)

Have ---- you ---- eaten?
(Aux) (Subj) (verb, past participle)

Auxiliary Verbs and Words in Spanish:

Spanish doesn't use auxiliary words in questions, only in present perfect and past perfect compound verbs.

Examples:

¿ Has --------------- viajado --------------- a ---------- España ?
 (Aux-You) (verb, past participle) (preposition) (location)

He ------- comido.
(Aux-I) (verb, past participle)