Ninguno Usually Used in Singular Form

From the mailbox, a question about the example of

No quiero ningún libro.
I don't want any books.

from the lesson on indefinite adjectives:

In the 1st line, should "libro" be plural to agree with the translation "books" on the 2nd line?

This is one of those cases where the numbers don't really match up in Spanish and English. Probably what's best to remember here is that ninguno (as well as the feminine form, ninguna) is almost always used in the singular form. But ninguno (or the noun it refers to when ninguno is used as an adjective) can often be translated to English as either singular or plural without any change in meaning.

Here's a sentence as an example: Él tiene lo que ninguna mujer puede resistir. In English, either "He has what no woman can resist" and "He has what no women can resist" mean essentially the same thing. But in Spanish, the singular form would almost always be used. Similarly, a sentence such as "No he tenido ningún problema" could be translated as either "I haven't had any problem" or "I haven't had any problems," with any difference in meaning being very slight. But "ningunos problemas" is hardly ever used.

It wouldn't be a grammatical crime to use the plural in Spanish sentence like those two, and indeed you may sometimes hear similar constructions. But as a general rule, the main time ningunos or ningunas is used is when referring to nouns that are grammatically plural although singular in meaning:

No veo ningunas tijeras. I don't see any scissors.No necesito ningunas gafas. I don't need any glasses.No tengo ningunas ganas de estudiar. I don't have any desire to study.

And by the way, there's a reason many of the sentences about use both no and ninguno: Double negatives are common in Spanish. In fact, they're required in many cases where they'd be wrong in English.

View the original article here