Decide if the following sentence is grammatically CORRECT or INCORRECT.
No di mentiras.
Correct
Incorrect
The Correct Answer and Explanation is :
The sentence “No di mentiras” is incorrect.
Explanation:
In Spanish, the verb “di” is the first-person singular preterite form of the verb “dar,” which means “to give.” The sentence “No di mentiras” would literally translate to “I did not give lies,” which doesn’t make sense in the context of a typical Spanish negation structure when you want to say “I did not lie.”
To correctly express the idea of “I did not lie” (i.e., I did not tell lies), the correct verb to use is “mentir,” which means “to lie.” The correct form of “mentir” in the preterite tense for the first person singular is “mentí.”
Therefore, the grammatically correct sentence would be:
“No mentí mentiras.”
This means “I did not lie (tell lies).”
Why the Original Sentence Is Incorrect:
- Verb Choice: The verb “di” refers to “to give” (from “dar”), while “mentir” is the correct verb for “to lie.” The sentence is attempting to express that the subject did not lie, so “di” is incorrect.
- Contextual Meaning: Even though “di” could technically be used in some contexts (such as “I gave lies” in an unusual context), it doesn’t fit the common meaning of the sentence. In this case, “No mentí” should be used to negate the action of lying.
Final Sentence:
The corrected sentence, “No mentí mentiras,” conveys the intended meaning of “I did not lie” or “I did not tell lies.”