A negative command tells someone not to carry out an action. In contemporary standard Catalan, every finite personal negative command uses no + present subjunctive: No parlis, No parli, No parlem, No parleu, No parlin. The rule applies to familiar and polite address alike.
This creates an important asymmetry. Affirmative tu and vosaltres commands have imperative forms, but their negative counterparts use the subjunctive. English hides the change because “open” and “don't open” use the same lexical shape.
The complete negative-command paradigm
Here is the Central Catalan pattern with a regular -ar verb. The subject in parentheses is usually omitted because the ending and context identify the addressee.
| Addressee | Negative command of parlar | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| tu | no parlis | don't speak |
| vostè | no parli | don't speak (polite singular) |
| nosaltres | no parlem | let's not speak |
| vosaltres | no parleu | don't speak (familiar plural) |
| vostès | no parlin | don't speak (polite plural) |
No parlis amb la boca plena.
Don't speak with your mouth full.
No parli tan de pressa, si us plau; no el sento bé.
Don't speak so quickly, please; I can't hear you well. (polite singular)
No parlem tots alhora o no ens entendrem.
Let's not all speak at once or we won't understand one another.
No parleu durant la projecció.
Don't talk during the screening. (familiar plural)
No parlin encara; esperin que els donin la paraula.
Don't speak yet; wait until you are given the floor. (polite plural)
The verb agrees with the person being directed, not with any object in the sentence. Vostè takes third-person singular parli; vostès takes third-person plural parlin. The nosaltres form includes the speaker and normally means “let's not...”.
The affirmative-negative contrast
Regular forms sometimes look deceptively similar. With first-conjugation verbs, parleu serves as both affirmative and negative vosaltres form, but pronoun position and no still reveal the construction. Irregular verbs make the mood change visible.
| Addressee | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tu | fes-ho | no ho facis |
| tu | ves-hi | no hi vagis |
| vosaltres | digueu-m'ho | no m'ho digueu |
| vosaltres | veniu | no vingueu |
No facis soroll, que la nena dorm.
Don't make noise; the little girl is asleep.
No hi aneu avui: la carretera està tallada.
Don't go there today; the road is closed.
The subjunctive fits the meaning of a prohibition. The speaker rejects or tries to prevent a possible action rather than asserting that it happens. This is the same broad nonassertive logic explained in what the subjunctive contributes.
Weak pronouns go before the verb
In negative commands, weak pronouns are proclitic: they stand between no and the finite verb. They are not attached after the verb.
No m'ho diguis ara; espera que arribin els altres.
Don't tell me now; wait until the others arrive.
No us n'aneu sense recollir les claus.
Don't leave without picking up the keys.
No li ho enviïn fins que ho hagi revisat.
Don't send it to him/her until I have reviewed it. (polite plural)
Compare Dona-me'l with No me'l donis, and Emporteu-vos-en dos with No us n'emporteu cap. Polarity changes both the mood and the clitic position. No comes first, followed by the complete pronoun cluster and then the verb.
The negative particle in Catalan is no. In some varieties and contexts, pas reinforces or nuances a negative: No ho facis pas! “Don't you do that!” (informal). It does not replace no in the ordinary standard command pattern.
Stress and spelling
Present-subjunctive spelling preserves the verb's sounds: tocar → no toquis, pagar → no paguis, començar → no comencis, menjar → no mengis. The letters change before the ending so that the consonant remains recognizable.
No toquis aquest cable: encara hi passa corrent.
Don't touch this cable; it's still live.
Person-number endings remain essential even when the subject is absent: no obris addresses tu, no obriu addresses vosaltres, and no obrin addresses vostès. There is no general rule that an English plural command maps to the polite plural; choose vosaltres for familiar plural and vostès for polite plural.
Commands, advice, and register
The grammar of no facis covers several speech acts: a strict prohibition, friendly advice, a warning, or a request. Intonation and context determine the force.
No t'oblidis de portar aigua; farà molta calor.
Don't forget to bring water; it'll be very hot.
Adding si us plau softens a direct order: No aparqui aquí, si us plau. Other constructions can be gentler still: Val més que no hi vagis sol “You'd better not go alone,” or Procura no arribar tard “Try not to arrive late.” These are not imperatives of the same shape, but they may suit a delicate social situation better.
Public signs often use the infinitive—No fumar, No trepitjar la gespa—as impersonal instructions. That convention does not replace a personal command in conversation. Say No fumis aquí to one familiar person, not No fumar aquí.
English sometimes uses a progressive in warnings such as “Don't be touching that.” Catalan normally uses the simple form No toquis això. No estiguis tocant això is possible only when the speaker specifically criticizes an activity already in progress or repeated insistently; it is more marked.
Regional forms
This page uses Central present-subjunctive forms: no parlis, no facis, no vagis. (regional: Valencian) Standard forms include no parles, no faces, no vages for familiar singular, alongside no parle, no faça, no vaja with vostè. These are systematic regional forms, not colloquial mistakes. (regional: Northwestern) some forms pattern with Valencian in parts of the paradigm. Keep one regional system coherent.
The same contrast survives in every variety: affirmative and negative commands need not use the same stem. A Valencian fes-ho versus no ho faces expresses the same polarity contrast as Central fes-ho versus no ho facis.
Mini-dialogue: protecting a wet floor
—Puc passar per aquí? —No hi entris encara; acaben de fregar el terra.
—Can I go through here? —Don't go in yet; they've just mopped the floor.
—I per on passo? —Ves pel passadís, però no t'agafis a la paret: també és molla.
—Then which way should I go? —Go through the corridor, but don't hold onto the wall; it's wet too.
No hi entris and no t'agafis are negative familiar commands with proclitics. Under current IEC orthography, both the movement command from anar and the form of veure found in a few expressions are written ves without an accent; here context gives the movement reading in Ves pel passadís.
Common Mistakes
1. Adding no to an affirmative irregular form.
❌ No fes això davant dels nens.
Incorrect—the negative command requires the present subjunctive.
✅ No facis això davant dels nens.
Don't do that in front of the children.
2. Leaving pronouns after a negative command.
❌ No diguis-m'ho encara.
Incorrect—weak pronouns precede a negative imperative.
✅ No m'ho diguis encara.
Don't tell me yet.
3. Using vostè with familiar agreement.
⚠️ Senyora, no obris aquesta porta.
Grammatical with familiar address, but mismatched if senyora is being addressed politely; vostè requires third-person singular.
✅ Senyora, no obri aquesta porta.
Madam, don't open this door.
4. Copying the Spanish negative-command form.
❌ No hagas soroll.
Incorrect—the verb form is Spanish, while soroll is Catalan.
✅ No facis soroll.
Don't make noise.
5. Using an English-style progressive without an ongoing contrast.
⚠️ No estiguis obrint la finestra.
Possible when criticizing an ongoing or repeated activity, but overmarked for a simple instruction not to open the window.
✅ No obris la finestra.
Don't open the window.
Key Takeaways
- Every finite personal negative command uses no plus the present subjunctive.
- Polarity can change both the verb stem and pronoun position: fes-ho but no ho facis.
- Put weak pronouns before the finite verb, immediately after no.
- Choose endings for tu, vostè, nosaltres, vosaltres, or vostès and keep regional morphology consistent.
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