Portuguese Negation: Where não Goes, and Why Two Negatives Stay Negative

English builds a negative sentence with a whole small machine: reach for do or does, add not, and put the main verb back into its bare form. Portuguese needs one word, não, in one fixed place. Get that placement automatic and negation stops being a grammar point and becomes a reflex. This page covers the negation structures on the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Portuguese (1PG0) specification, Foundation and Higher: the simple negative with não, negative verb forms of every shape, and how não works alongside the other negative words.

Where não goes, for every structure on this page:

Não goes in front of the verb

That is the core rule. Não sits before the conjugated verb, and nothing else changes: there is no do or does to insert, no auxiliary to conjugate, and no change to the verb's own ending. The verbs you use constantly, ter (to have), ser and estar (both to be), take não exactly the same way, with no special negative forms to learn.

Take any affirmative sentence you already know how to build, put não in front of the verb, and you have a complete, correct negative. Gostar keeps its de in the negative too; only não is added.

Pronouns: the one thing that goes between não and the verb

Object and reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, o, a, lhe, nos) are the only words that can sit between não and the verb:

• Ele não se lembra do nome. - He doesn't remember the name.
• Não me sinto bem. - I don't feel well.

This is where the two varieties differ, and it matters. In an ordinary affirmative sentence, European Portuguese hyphenates the pronoun after the verb; não then pulls it round to the front. Brazilian Portuguese already puts the pronoun in front of the verb, so in the negative nothing moves.

Either way, the pronoun never goes before não (eu me não lembro is wrong), and in European Portuguese it never stays hyphenated after the verb once não is there (não lembro-me is wrong).

Two verbs: não goes before the first

When a helping verb like ir, poder, querer or estar introduces a second verb, não goes in front of the first, conjugated one:

Moving não to the second verb changes what is being denied. Eu posso não ajudar means I could choose not to help, a statement about a choice rather than a flat denial. For an ordinary negative, não belongs on the first verb.

Compound tenses with ter work the same way: não goes before ter, never between ter and the participle: Ela não tinha visto aquele filme, she hadn't seen that film.

Negating an infinitive or há

When an infinitive is negated on its own, usually after para (in order to) or another verb, não goes directly in front of the infinitive:

• Saí cedo para não chegar atrasado. - I left early so as not to be late.
• Decidimos não ir à festa. - We decided not to go to the party.

Há (there is, there are) follows the ordinary rule, and needs no extra word for English any: Não há pão, there isn't any bread.

Telling someone not to do something

A negative command puts não in front of the verb, and the verb is in the present subjunctive. For você, that is the same form as the positive command. With tu, the positive command and the negative one differ.

Casual Brazilian speech often keeps the positive tu form in the negative (não fala assim), which is fine to recognise but not the form to write in an exam.

Public signs use yet another pattern, não plus a bare infinitive, or more often proibido plus the infinitive: Proibido fumar, No smoking. That belongs on a notice, not in speech aimed at a person; telling someone not to smoke needs the command, não fume.

A second negative word: não stays

English avoids stacking two negatives: I don't see anything, never I don't see nothing. Portuguese does the opposite. The position of the negative word (nada nothing, ninguém nobody, nunca never) decides whether não is needed:

Nem... nem, neither... nor, follows the same logic: não como carne nem peixe, I eat neither meat nor fish. Portuguese adverbs has more on nunca.

Answering no: não twice

Portuguese usually answers a yes-or-no question by repeating the verb, and a negative answer repeats it with não in front. So the reply often has two: one to answer the question, one to negate the verb.

Dropping the second não and answering não, tenho contradicts itself: the first word says no, the verb says yes. The verb changes to match each question, but the shape of the answer never does.

Tag questions and suggestions

Não also turns a statement into a question that invites agreement, like English isn't it?. The tag echoes the verb of the main clause:

• Está frio, não está? - It's cold, isn't it?
• Ele é simpático, não é? - He's nice, isn't he?

In casual speech, above all in Brazil, não é shrinks to né, tacked onto almost any statement; Portugal says it too, but far less.

A negative question also makes a suggestion, exactly as English why don't we does. Brazil writes por que, Portugal porque:

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

Negation is one of the shortest grammar points on the GCSE Portuguese specification, and that is exactly why it is worth making completely automatic: every other structure you learn will eventually need to be turned negative.

1. Turn sentences you already know into negatives, one não at a time.
2. Add the pronoun cases until não me lembro comes out without thought.
3. Go further: the pronoun rules in full are in Portuguese object pronouns, commands are in the imperative, and all of it is drilled in the Portuguese course.