Infinitives, gerunds, and participles do not carry ordinary person marking, but they can still fall inside or outside the scope of negation. Catalan normally places no immediately before the nonfinite verbal unit it negates: no venir, no havent rebut l'avís, un informe no signat. When a finite auxiliary or modal is present, moving no across it can change the meaning rather than merely the style.
English often inserts not directly before a nonfinite verb, so the basic order looks familiar. The difficult part is structural: Catalan clitics stay attached to an infinitive or gerund, prepositions remain before the whole negative clause, and a participle in a compound tense behaves differently from an adjectival participle.
For the positive forms and their clause-building roles, review the overview of finite and nonfinite verbs; here the question is specifically where negation takes scope.
Decision table
| What is negated? | Pattern | Example | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple infinitive | no + infinitive | Va decidir no respondre. | All registers |
| Perfect infinitive | no haver + participle | Lamenta no haver vingut. | Neutral to formal |
| Simple gerund clause | no + gerund | No sabent què fer, va trucar. | Written or careful speech |
| Perfect gerund clause | no havent + participle | No havent rebut resposta, hi va insistir. | Formal written |
| Adjectival participle | no + participle, with agreement | factures no pagades | Neutral to administrative |
| Finite compound tense | no + finite haver + participle | No hem rebut resposta. | All registers |
Infinitives: negate the subordinate action
In Ha decidit no venir, the decision is affirmative; what will not happen is the coming. Put no directly before the infinitive whose event is rejected.
Després de parlar-hi, vam decidir no presentar cap recurs.
After speaking with her, we decided not to file any appeal.
Em sap greu no poder-te ajudar aquest cap de setmana.
I’m sorry not to be able to help you this weekend.
An infinitive has no tense ending, but its time is normally interpreted relative to the finite verb. For a prior event, use the perfect infinitive haver + participle and place no before haver.
La Berta es penedeix de no haver acceptat l'oferta quan podia.
Berta regrets not having accepted the offer when she could.
El director nega haver rebut l'informe, però no nega haver-ne parlat amb l'equip.
The director denies having received the report, but he does not deny having discussed it with the team.
The second example is a useful scope contrast. Nega haver rebut makes denial the main predicate; no nega haver-ne parlat negates the finite verb nega. By contrast, nega no haver-ne parlat would mean “he denies not having discussed it,” a logically different and much harder sentence.
Prepositions stand before the whole negative infinitive
When a preposition introduces an infinitive clause, the order is preposition + no + infinitive: per no arribar tard, en cas de no poder venir. With sense, however, the preposition already contributes absence, so ordinary Catalan says sense avisar rather than the logically cumbersome sense no avisar.
Hem sortit abans per no trobar tanta cua a l'autopista.
We left earlier so as not to hit so much traffic on the motorway.
En cas de no poder assistir-hi, aviseu secretaria abans de dijous.
If you are unable to attend, notify the office before Thursday. (formal instruction)
Do not strand the preposition as English can: “the meeting he decided not to go to” requires a Catalan structure such as la reunió a la qual va decidir no anar. Also resist Spanish government where Catalan selects something else: standard decidir no venir has no de, whereas penedir-se de no haver vingut requires de because penedir-se de governs it.
Clitics remain linked to infinitives and gerunds
Inside a negative nonfinite unit, weak pronouns are normally enclitic and written with the required apostrophes or hyphens. No goes before the verbal unit: no fer-ho, no dir-m'ho, no anar-se'n. With a perfect form, clitics attach to haver: no haver-ho vist, no haver-me'n adonat. In a finite verbal complex, Catalan may instead raise the clitic before the finite verb (No ho puc explicar / No puc explicar-ho). This is clitic placement, not movement of no: for embedded negation, keep no before the nonfinite unit (Puc no explicar-ho).
És millor no explicar-los-ho fins que tinguem totes les dades.
It’s better not to explain it to them until we have all the data.
Diu que se'n va anar sense acomiadar-se, però jo recordo haver-lo vist a la porta.
She says she left without saying goodbye, but I remember seeing him at the door.
Here sense acomiadar-se needs no extra no: sense already means the farewell did not occur. A literal sense no acomiadar-se would contain two negative operators and tends toward “not without saying goodbye,” the opposite implication.
Gerunds: negated background, cause, or manner
A gerund clause can express an action simultaneous with or immediately prior to the main event, or a circumstance interpreted as cause, condition, or concession. No + gerund negates that subordinate circumstance.
No sabent quin autobús agafar, vam preguntar-ho al conductor.
Not knowing which bus to take, we asked the driver.
No disposant de tota la informació, la comissió va ajornar la decisió.
Not having all the information, the committee postponed the decision. (careful written style)
The second sentence is grammatical but heavier than everyday Com que no disposava de tota la informació.... Negated gerunds are especially natural when their understood subject is the same as the main-clause subject. Avoid a dangling reading: No trobant la clau, la finestra va quedar oberta wrongly makes la finestra the understood finder. Say Com que no trobàvem la clau, vam deixar la finestra oberta.
The perfect gerund marks an earlier circumstance. It is characteristic of (formal) narrative, administrative, or legal prose.
No havent rebut cap al·legació dins del termini, la comissió va tancar l'expedient.
Having received no objection within the deadline, the committee closed the file. (formal)
This sentence can also be written more plainly: Com que no havia rebut cap al·legació..., la comissió... The compressed form is useful, not inherently better.
Participles: compound verb or adjective?
In a finite compound tense, the participle does not carry the clause negation by itself. Negate the finite auxiliary: No han publicat els resultats, not Han no publicat els resultats in ordinary Catalan.
Encara no han reparat l'ascensor de l'edifici.
They still haven’t repaired the building’s lift.
When a participle modifies a noun adjectivally, no can stand directly before it, and the participle agrees with the noun: un rebut no pagat, una factura no pagada, uns rebuts no pagats, unes factures no pagades.
Les sol·licituds no signades quedaran fora de la convocatòria.
Unsigned applications will be excluded from the call.
Formal prose also permits compressed absolute participial structures, but they can be stiff and their logical subject must be explicit.
No resolta encara la incidència, el servei continuarà suspès fins demà.
With the incident still unresolved, the service will remain suspended until tomorrow. (formal)
In ordinary communication, Com que la incidència encara no s'ha resolt... is clearer. Catalan does not have a productive participial negative command comparable to a finite prohibition.
Auxiliaries, modals, and scope
Moving no across a modal changes which proposition it negates. This minimal pair is essential:
La Núria pot no venir a la reunió.
Núria may not come to the meeting. (Not coming is a possibility.)
La Núria no pot venir a la reunió.
Núria cannot come to the meeting. (Coming is impossible or she is unable to come.)
Similarly, No cal presentar el rebut means “there is no need to submit the receipt,” while Cal no presentar-lo fins demà means that not submitting it until tomorrow is required. The latter is possible but marked; a clearer instruction is Cal esperar fins demà per presentar-lo.
With haver de, No has de trucar may mean “you need not call” or, in context, “you must not call.” If the distinction matters, write No cal que truquis for absence of necessity and Cal que no truquis / No truquis for prohibition. Word order alone does not always rescue a semantically ambiguous modal.
A natural dialogue
—Per què has decidit no venir demà? —Per no haver d'agafar el primer tren. Puc connectar-m'hi des de casa. —Entesos, però procura no desconnectar-te abans que votem. —No pateixis; no havent-hi cap avaria, m'hi quedaré fins al final.
—Why have you decided not to come tomorrow? —So I won’t have to catch the first train. I can join remotely from home. —All right, but try not to disconnect before we vote. —Don’t worry; provided there’s no outage, I’ll stay until the end.
The final no havent-hi cap avaria is a relatively formal conditional circumstance; conversation would also use si no hi ha cap avaria.
Punctuation, region, and register
A nonfinite clause fronted as a sentence-level circumstance is normally followed by a comma: No havent rebut resposta, hi vam insistir. A short selected complement is not detached: Va decidir no venir. This punctuation difference reflects syntax, not the presence of no.
The placement patterns in this page are shared across Central, Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese Catalan, and they are compatible with both IEC and AVL standards. Variation is more visible in vocabulary and finite paradigms than in no venir or no havent rebut. Register matters more here: simple negative infinitives are ordinary conversation, while long initial gerund and absolute-participle clauses belong mainly to careful, (formal), administrative, or (literary) writing.
Short correction task
Correct the position, clitic form, or scope.
- Ha promès no ens trucar tan tard.
- Pot venir no demà. (Intended: “She may not come tomorrow.”)
- Han no enviat encara les factures.
- No trobant l'adreça, el taxi va arribar tard.
Ha promès no trucar-nos tan tard.
He has promised not to call us so late. (The clitic attaches to the infinitive.)
Pot no venir demà.
She may not come tomorrow. (No scopes over the infinitive, inside possibility.)
Encara no han enviat les factures.
They still haven’t sent the invoices. (Negate the finite auxiliary.)
Com que el taxista no trobava l'adreça, el taxi va arribar tard.
Because the driver couldn’t find the address, the taxi arrived late. (Supply the correct logical subject.)
Common Mistakes
❌ Prefereixo no ho comentar ara.
Incorrect — with an infinitive, the weak pronoun normally attaches after the verb.
✅ Prefereixo no comentar-ho ara.
I prefer not to discuss it now.
❌ Lamenta haver no arribat a temps.
Incorrect in neutral Catalan — no precedes the perfect infinitive headed by haver.
✅ Lamenta no haver arribat a temps.
She regrets not having arrived on time.
❌ Va marxar sense no dir res.
Incorrect for the intended ‘without saying anything’ — sense already supplies absence, so the extra no reverses or obscures the meaning.
✅ Va marxar sense dir res.
She left without saying anything.
❌ El formulari no completada no es pot tramitar.
Incorrect — an adjectival participle agrees with formulari in gender and number.
✅ El formulari no completat no es pot tramitar.
The incomplete form cannot be processed.
Key Takeaways
- Negate the nonfinite unit with no venir, no haver vingut, or no havent vingut.
- A preceding preposition stays outside that unit, while weak pronouns attach to the infinitive, gerund, or haver.
- In a finite compound tense, no precedes the finite auxiliary; before an adjectival participle, the participle agrees with its noun.
- Moving no across a modal can reverse scope: pot no venir is not the same as no pot venir.
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- Finite and Nonfinite Verb FormsA1 — Distinguish person-marked indicative, subjunctive, and imperative forms from infinitives, gerunds, and participles and use each to build clauses.
- Infinitives after PrepositionsA2 — Choose the preposition that expresses or is selected by the relationship, then use an infinitive—not an English-style gerund—when it introduces an event.
- Gerunds for Simultaneous Manner and CircumstanceA2 — Use Catalan gerund clauses for manner, means, and accompanying action while keeping their subject and punctuation clear.
- The Compound GerundA2 — Form the Catalan compound gerund with havent plus a participle and use it for a completed circumstance before another event.
- Absolute Participial ConstructionsA2 — Use a detached agreeing participle to frame a completed circumstance, usually in concise formal or written Catalan.
- Negation Scope and AmbiguityB2 — Identify what Catalan no negates around constituents, quantifiers, modals, subordinate clauses, and spoken focus, then disambiguate by paraphrasing.