nenhumas destas botas me agradam
nenhuma destas gravatas e tua
I don’t understand why one phrase uses the singular and the other the plural form when both botas and gravatas are in the plural.
@lorraineg2011 Grammatically speaking, it’s fine to use both singular and plural versions of the quantifier “nenhum”. Then, in practice, what happens is:
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For many people, the singular forms “Nenhum(a)” have become dominant over the plural forms, which makes sense in a way, because what you’re really saying is that not one of those boots, or not one of those ties, pleases you. An exception is made for double negations – the plural forms are often used for emphasis. For example, “Não vi erros nenhuns !” (“I did not see any mistakes!”) sounds perfectly natural for a native speaker.
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It depends on the number of whatever it is that you’re talking about. Imagine a situation where someone is taking a multiple choice exam and they want to say that they don’t like any of the options. To my ears, saying it in the singular (“ Nenhuma das opções me agrada “) fits better when the person is referring to just one of the questions. On the other hand, to talk about a number of questions or about the exam as a whole, the plural (“ Nenhumas das opções me agradam “) seems more appropriate.
Since both the singular and plural forms are possible, we opted by exposing people to both throughout the unit.
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thank you for such a clear explanation. It causes the same confusion in English! Very prompt too. I am very impressed with Practice Portuguese, thank you
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