no animals were hurt in thr making of this film.

Question

no animals were in the making of this film. The correct answer i ningún animal. I put ningún animalesWhy is it incorrect when the sentence was no animals?

Marsha Cornelius · Answer

Did you have a look at the tip in the lesson which explains everything?

Inma Sánchez · Answer

Hola AnnieAs Marsha said, we have a special box where we explain this use of singular in Spanish when it may be using the plural in English, to avoid confusion. Nevertheless I've just added an extra example to that box to make it more clear. I hope it helps.Saludos

Jerald Winter · Answer

It is easy to get this trick question wrong because it is not a literal translation. Ningún + noun (singular) , when at the beginning of a sentence, can represent both singular and plural (eg no animal, no animals.) We do not have the same broader concept or word construction in English.

However, there is a "sneaky" clue in this trick question where they used "No animals" and not "No animal." "(No animals) ____________ sufrió al rodar esta película." The verb used in the answer is "sufrió," which is the preterite singular verb for sufrir. (The preterite plural verb is "sufrieron.") Subject and verb have to match! So a plural subject form cannot be used, and the answer can only be "Ningún animal" to make the subject match the verb. Tricky, but, hey, it's Spanish, not English.