Hebrew has two everyday negators and they are not interchangeable in any register. The full account of each is on לא and אין; this page is the decision you have to make in the half-second before you speak.
The test: what would the positive sentence have been?
Do not ask what the English negator is — English uses not, no and don't on no principle Hebrew shares. Ask what you would have said if the sentence were positive.
- The positive would have had a conjugated past or future verb — קניתי, נספיק — so the negative is לא.
- The positive would have had יש — יש חלב, יש לי כוח — so the negative is אין.
- The positive would have had a present-tense verb or a bare adjective — מקבלים, בטוח — so the negative is לא in speech and in most writing, with אינו available as a formal alternative.
| What the sentence is doing | Negator | Example |
|---|---|---|
| past or future verb | לא | לא קניתי · לא נספיק |
| saying something exists or is available | אין | אין חלב · אין מקום |
| saying somebody has something | אין plus ל־ | אין לי כוח · אין לנו ברירה |
| present-tense verb or adjective | לא, or formal אינו | לא מקבלים · אינה דנה |
| telling somebody not to do something | אל | אל תלך |
לא קניתי כלום, הכול היה יקר מדי.
lo kaníti klum, hakól hayá yakár midái
I didn't buy anything — it was all too expensive.
אין חלב במקרר, שכחתי לקנות.
ein khaláv bamekarér, shakhákhti liknót
There's no milk in the fridge — I forgot to buy some.
אין לי כוח לצאת הערב, בוא ניפגש מחר.
ein li kóakh latsét ha'érev, bo nipagésh makhár
I haven't got the energy to go out tonight — let's meet tomorrow. (to a man)
The last one is the case English hides best. I don't have looks like a negated verb, so it feels as though it should take לא; Hebrew has no verb to have at all, so what is being denied is an existence, and the negator is אין. The frame itself is on יש לי.
יש מקום בחניון? — אין, נסה ברחוב מאחורה.
yesh makóm bakhanyón? ein, nasé barekhóv me'akhóra
Is there any space in the car park? — No, try the street round the back. (to a man)
The one place the choice is genuinely open
Everything above is grammar and has no alternative. The present-tense participle is different: both negators are available, and what separates them is register.
אנחנו לא מקבלים מזומן, רק אשראי.
anákhnu lo mekablím mezumán, rak ashrái
We don't take cash, only card. (everyday speech and ordinary writing alike)
הוועדה אינה דנה בבקשות שהוגשו באיחור.
hava'adá einá daná bevakashót shehugshú be'ikhúr
The committee does not consider applications submitted after the deadline. (formal — the same sentence in speech is הוועדה לא דנה)
Those two sentences are both correct. The first is what an Israeli says and what most Israelis write; the second is what an official notice, a contract or a leading article prints. Neither is a corrupted version of the other, and the details of the split — including what the Academy actually recommends — are on negating the participle.
אינני, אינך, אינו: a paradigm to recognise
The formal option inflects for person, which is the surest sign that you are in a register you did not choose by accident: אֵינֶנִּי, אֵינְךָ, אֵינוֹ, אֵינָהּ, אֵינֶנּוּ, אֵינָם. House rule for learners: recognise it everywhere, use it only in writing that is meant to sound official. The full table is on inflected אין.
אין כניסה לרכבים, השער נעול בשבת.
ein knisá lirkhavím, hashá'ar na'úl beshabát
No vehicle entry — the gate is locked on Saturdays. (formal — a sign, where אין is both correct and idiomatic)
Commands are the third negator and not a choice at all: לא cannot negate a request, so don't go is אל תלך, with the future tense behind it. That system is on אל plus the future.
Common Mistakes
1. Negating possession the English way. I don't have has a subject, a negator and a verb, in that order, and all three want to come across into Hebrew. None of them can: the possessor is not a subject, and there is no verb.
❌ אני לא יש אחים
Incorrect — לא never stands in front of יש, and the possessor never stands in front of it as a subject. The possessive negative is אין plus ל־: אין לי אחים.
✅ אין לי אחים, אני בן יחיד.
ein li akhím, aní ben yakhíd
I haven't got any brothers or sisters — I'm an only child. (m. speaker)
2. Using אין as a general isn't. Once אין is learned as there isn't, it starts arriving in sentences that already have a subject — and אין cannot negate a predicate about a named thing.
❌ המסעדה אין פתוחה בשבת
Incorrect — with a named subject the everyday negator is לא: המסעדה לא פתוחה בשבת. The formal alternative is not bare אין either; it is the inflected form, המסעדה אינה פתוחה.
✅ המסעדה לא פתוחה בשבת, אבל יש אחת דומה בהמשך הרחוב.
hamis'adá lo ptukhá beshabát, avál yesh akhát domá behemshékh harekhóv
The restaurant isn't open on Saturdays, but there's a similar one further down the street.
3. Over-correcting after you read a grammar book. This one runs the other way, and it is the reason the register split is worth stating twice. Having learned that אינו is the "correct" negator of a participle, learners start saying it, and every sentence begins to sound like a municipal by-law. Both of these are right; only one of them is something you say.
✅ אני לא בטוח שזה רעיון טוב, בוא נחשוב על זה עוד יום.
aní lo batúakh shezé ra'yón tov, bo nakhshóv al ze od yom
I'm not sure that's a good idea — let's sleep on it. (m. speaker, to a man — ordinary speech)
✅ אינני בטוח שזה רעיון טוב, ואני מבקש לשקול את העניין שוב.
einéni batúakh shezé ra'yón tov, va'aní mevakésh lishkól et ha'inyán shuv
I am not persuaded that this is a good idea, and I ask that the matter be reconsidered. (formal — written, or spoken at a committee table)
Choosing the second in a conversation is not a grammatical error; it is a register error, and it is worked out on sounding like a textbook.
Key Takeaways
- Ask what the positive sentence would have been. יש in the positive means אין in the negative; a conjugated verb means לא.
- לא covers past and future verbs, present-tense verbs, adjectives and noun predicates. There is no *לא יש in any register.
- אין denies existence — אין חלב — and, with ל־, possession — אין לי כוח. English's I don't have is not a verb in Hebrew.
- A יש question is answered with אין, not with לא.
- Only the participle leaves a real choice, and it is register: לא in speech and ordinary writing, אינו in official prose. Both are correct.
- אינני, אינך, אינו, אינה, אינם are formal, not archaic — recognise them, and write them only when the text is meant to sound official.
- אין prefers an indefinite subject. With a definite one, speech uses לא (הספר לא כאן) and formal writing uses the inflected form.
- Commands take אל, never לא: אל תלך.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- לא: The Basic NegatorA1 — לא is Hebrew's ordinary 'not'. It is one invariable word that stands immediately in front of whatever it negates — verb, adjective, noun or pronoun — and Hebrew has no auxiliary verb for it to lean on, so English 'don't', 'didn't' and 'doesn't' have nothing at all to correspond to.
- אין: Negating Existence and PossessionA1 — אין is the negative of יש, not of לא. It denies that something exists (אין מקום), denies that anyone has it (אין לי זמן), and in front of an infinitive it forbids (אין לעשן) — and because it already carries the clause negation, no second לא is added to that clause.
- לא vs אין with the Present TenseC1 — The present tense is the בינוני participle, and a participle in classical Hebrew has the standing of a noun — which is why this is the one corner of Hebrew where the negator is a genuine choice. הוא לא מבין, הוא אינו מבין and אין הוא מבין are three registers of one sentence, not one correct form and two errors; and when the predicate comes first, לא is what the Academy itself prescribes.
- אל: The Negative CommandA2 — To tell somebody not to do something, Hebrew uses אל plus a second-person future — אל תלך, never the imperative form itself. That is why לך and אל תלך look unrelated, and why the textbook line that לא plus the future is 'wrong' is itself wrong: it is a different register, not a different grammar.