No me dejes solo en esto: The Negative Imperative in Spanish
e continue with the imperative mood in Spanish. The imperative mood is that verbal mood, which exists in one form or another in every language in the world, that we use to give orders, make requests, give advice, etc. In other words, it is a verbal mood we use to convey our intention for the listener or listeners to carry out an action. However, we may also have the opposite intention: for our listeners not to carry out an action. Those are the cases in which we use the negative imperative. In this article we will look at its grammar, usage examples, use with pronouns, and much more. Let's go!
Conjugation.
The conjugation of the negative imperative coincides in all cases with that of the present subjunctive, and this is good news: by learning one verb tense you learn the conjugation of two. As a general rule, for regular verbs, we take the first person singular of the present indicative, drop the -o, and add the present subjunctive endings, which begin with -e for verbs in the first group (-ar) and begin with -a for verbs in the second and third groups (-er and -ir). Of course, there are irregular verbs: here you can read more about the conjugation of the present subjunctive. In that article you will find an exhaustive list of irregularities. All the irregularities that occur in the present subjunctive are maintained in the negative imperative. Let’s look at some regular conjugation examples.
Hablar (to speak): yo hablo. No hables (tú), no hable (usted), no hablemos (nosotros/as), no habléis (vosotros/as), no hablen (ustedes).
Comer (to eat): yo como. No comas (tú), no coma (usted), no comamos (nosotros/as), no comáis (vosotros/as), no coman (ustedes).
Vivir (to live): yo vivo. No vivas (tú), no viva (usted), no vivamos (nosotros/as), no viváis (vosotros/as), no vivan (ustedes).
As can be seen, the endings for the second and third groups are the same, and the only difference between these and those of the first group is the change from a to e.
Frequently used irregular verbs.
While all the irregularities coincide with those of the present subjunctive, here is a short list of frequently used irregular verbs and their conjugation.
Ser (to be): no seas (tú), no sea (usted), no seamos (nosotros/as), no seáis (vosotros/as), no sean (ustedes).
Ir (to go): no vayas (tú), no vaya (usted), no vayamos (nosotros/as), no vayáis (vosotros/as), no vayan (ustedes).
Hacer (to do/make): no hagas (tú), no haga (usted), no hagamos (nosotros/as), no hagáis (vosotros/as), no hagan (ustedes).
Decir (to say/tell): no digas (tú), no diga (usted), no digamos (nosotros/as), no digáis (vosotros/as), no digan (ustedes).
Tener (to have): no tengas (tú), no tenga (usted), no tengamos (nosotros/as), no tengáis (vosotros/as), no tengan (ustedes).
Poner (to put): no pongas (tú), no ponga (usted), no pongamos (nosotros/as), no pongáis (vosotros/as), no pongan (ustedes).
Salir (to go out/leave): no salgas (tú), no salga (usted), no salgamos (nosotros/as), no salgáis (vosotros/as), no salgan (ustedes).
Venir (to come): no vengas (tú), no venga (usted), no vengamos (nosotros/as), no vengáis (vosotros/as), no vengan (ustedes).
Dar (to give): no des (tú), no dé (usted), no demos (nosotros/as), no deis (vosotros/as), no den (ustedes).
Saber (to know): no sepas (tú), no sepa (usted), no sepamos (nosotros/as), no sepáis (vosotros/as), no sepan (ustedes).
Estar (to be): no estés (tú), no esté (usted), no estemos (nosotros/as), no estéis (vosotros/as), no estén (ustedes).
Grammatical structure.
The most basic structure is No + Verb + Complements.
¡No mires! (Don’t look!)
¡No hables! (Don’t speak!)
The adverb no must always precede the verb, meaning we cannot place complements between it and the verb. The only things that can be placed between no and the verb are reflexive and object pronouns, something we will look at shortly. Let’s see more examples.
No cierres la ventana. (Don’t close the window.)
No digas mentiras. (Don’t tell lies.)
The subject can also be made explicit, for emphasis, and it can come before or after the no + verb core.
Tú no hables. (You, don’t speak.)
No vengáis vosotros. (Don’t come, you all.)
Use with pronouns.
When we use reflexive, direct object, or indirect object pronouns with this construction, we place them between no and the conjugated verb. The order of the pronouns, when using more than one, is no + reflexive pronoun + direct object pronoun + conjugated verb, or no + indirect object pronoun + direct object pronoun + conjugated verb. Let’s look at some examples.
With a reflexive verb (lavarse) and a direct object (las manos):
No te laves las manos. (Don’t wash your hands.)
No te las laves. (Don’t wash them.)
With an indirect object (yo) and a direct object (el libro):
No me des el libro. (Don’t give me the book.)
No me lo des. (Don’t give it to me.)
Here you can read more about reflexive verbs and here about direct and indirect objects. Also, remember: when direct and indirect object pronouns go together, the indirect object pronouns le and les become se.
No le des el libro a María. (Don’t give the book to María.)
No se lo des. (Don’t give it to her.)
Uses.
The negative imperative is used to try to prevent the listener or listeners from carrying out an action. This can mean a prohibition, a piece of advice, preventing someone from making a mistake or doing something dangerous, etc. In the article where we looked at the positive imperative, we saw that in general Spanish speakers, especially when talking to strangers or in formal situations, tend to avoid using the positive imperative directly and instead choose polite alternatives. In the case of the negative imperative, from a pragmatic standpoint, it is used in a much more direct way. This is because when we make a request, using a polite form gives the listener more freedom to decide whether to comply or not: ¿podrías cerrar la ventana? (could you close the window?) is much more indirect than ¡cierra la ventana! (close the window!). In the case of the negative imperative we want to prevent an action from occurring, so in general we use it in situations that require a much more direct transmission of the message, since we generally do not intend to convey that freedom which we do seek to convey, out of politeness, when we use the positive imperative.
A common mistake.
I have said in many articles that Spanish speakers are very tolerant of mistakes, especially when the person making the mistake is someone acquiring Spanish as a foreign language, and that if we understand the message, no matter how full of errors it may be, our most likely response is ¡qué bien que hablas español! That said, it must also be noted that there are mistakes that do not hinder communication, and mistakes that do. And a mistake that can occur with the use of the imperative is one that can indeed hinder communication. In the positive imperative, the regular conjugation of the second person singular coincides with the third person singular of the present indicative. So we say, for example, ella habla rápido (she speaks fast), in the present indicative, and habla rápido (tú) (speak fast) in the imperative. If when using the negative imperative we maintain this rule instead of using the present subjunctive conjugation, we would say no habla rápido, which is a statement in the present indicative. This can indeed lead to confusion.
We have reached the end of this article. I hope you have found it useful. If you have any questions, feel free to write to me or leave a comment. Here I leave you with exercises to practice this topic. Thank you for reading!
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