Hindi नहीं is the ordinary negator of factual finite clauses: वह आज नहीं आया “he did not come today.” न belongs especially to subordinate and non-finite negation, apprehensions, paired structures, wishes, and formal prohibitions: वह न आए तो फ़ोन करना “if he does not come, call.” मत directly tells an addressee not to perform an action: आज मत आना “do not come today.”
English not and don't conceal these structural differences. The right Hindi form depends on whether the speaker is denying a proposition, embedding a non-occurrence, or trying to prevent an addressee's action. Start with नहीं in simple finite clauses for neutral clause negation; this guide supplies a decision procedure for choosing among all three particles and examines the genuine overlap.
A compact decision tree
- Are you denying or questioning a fact in an ordinary finite clause? Use नहीं.
- Are you directly prohibiting the listener from doing something? Use मत with the appropriate imperative or infinitive.
- Is the negative event inside an infinitive, purpose clause, condition, wish, fear, or paired construction? Use न in the constructions that license it.
- Is this an official instruction, notice, recipe, or elevated written directive? Formal न + subjunctive/imperative-like form may replace conversational मत.
- Could नहीं and न both occur? Decide whether the clause is presented as a plain fact (नहीं) or as subordinate, desired, hypothetical, contrastive, or stylistically elevated (न).
- Could न and मत both prohibit? Choose मत for an ordinary direct command and न for a formal, impersonal, or deliberately elevated instruction.
One verb in three environments
Holding आना “come” constant makes the central contrast visible:
रवि आज नहीं आएगा।
ravi āj nahīṃ āegā.
Ravi will not come today. (factual prediction)
रवि आज न आए तो मुझे बता देना।
ravi āj na āe to mujhe batā denā.
If Ravi does not come today, let me know. (hypothetical condition)
रवि, आज मत आना।
ravi, āj mat ānā.
Ravi, don't come today. (direct prohibition)
The first evaluates a future proposition. The second embeds non-coming as a condition; आए is subjunctive. The third addresses Ravi and attempts to prevent the action. English uses a negative expression in all three, but Hindi marks their syntactic and interpersonal status.
नहीं: denying facts and propositions
Use नहीं in neutral statements, answers, and negative questions across ordinary tense-aspect constructions.
मैं आज शाम की बैठक में शामिल नहीं हो रही हूँ।
maĩ āj śām kī baiṭhak meṃ śāmil nahīṃ ho rahī hū̃.
I am not attending this evening's meeting. (feminine speaker)
उन्होंने अभी तक भुगतान नहीं किया है।
unhoṃne abhī tak bhugtān nahīṃ kiyā hai.
They have not paid yet. (honorific singular or plural)
क्या यह बस हवाई अड्डे पर नहीं रुकती?
kyā yah bas havāī aḍḍe par nahīṃ ruktī?
Doesn't this bus stop at the airport?
In each sentence the speaker treats a proposition as false or asks whether it is false. नहीं can also reject a particular constituent when contrast identifies the replacement:
बैठक सोमवार को नहीं, मंगलवार को होगी।
baiṭhak somvār ko nahīṃ, maṅgalvār ko hogī.
The meeting will be on Tuesday, not Monday.
This is still factual correction. It is different from paired न...न “neither...nor,” where न organizes two parallel alternatives.
न: a negative event inside a larger structure
Neutral modern Hindi regularly uses न before an infinitive when the non-occurrence itself is a subject, complement, or decision content.
उसने सम्मेलन में न जाने का फ़ैसला किया।
usne sammelan meṃ na jāne kā faislā kiyā.
She decided not to go to the conference.
Compare a wide-scope factual negative:
उसने सम्मेलन में जाने का फ़ैसला नहीं किया।
usne sammelan meṃ jāne kā faislā nahīṃ kiyā.
She did not decide to go to the conference.
The first says a decision was made and its content was non-attendance. The second denies that a decision to attend occurred; perhaps no decision was made. Choice of particle exposes a real scope distinction.
न is also common in purpose clauses and wished-for avoidance:
धीरे बोलो, ताकि बच्चा जाग न जाए।
dhīre bolo, tāki baccā jāg na jāe.
Speak softly so that the child does not wake up. (familiar plural or singular)
कहीं आख़िरी ट्रेन छूट न जाए।
kahīṃ āxirī ṭren chūṭ na jāe.
I hope we don't miss the last train. / We might miss the last train.
In the apprehensive कहीं...न construction, the feared outcome is actually the positive event “the train gets missed.” Translating न word for word can reverse the intended meaning. This is one of the hard cases that must be learned as a construction.
Paired, concessive, and set uses of न
Paired न...न coordinates negative alternatives and often corresponds to “neither...nor.” न ही gives the second member extra parallel emphasis.
उसने न फ़ोन किया, न ही कोई संदेश भेजा।
usne na fon kiyā, na hī koī sandeś bhejā.
He neither called nor sent any message.
With चाहे...या न, न marks the negative alternative inside a concessive frame:
तुम मानो या न मानो, यह नियम सब पर लागू होता है।
tum māno yā na māno, yah niyam sab par lāgū hotā hai.
Whether you believe it or not, this rule applies to everyone. (familiar)
Literary and elevated prose may use finite न where everyday speech would use नहीं, especially in wishes, rhetorical balance, and older styles. Such न is (literary/formal), but subordinate and infinitival न in the examples above is ordinary modern Hindi and should not be mislabeled archaic.
यह स्मृति कभी धुँधली न हो।
yah smriti kabhī dhũdhlī na ho.
May this memory never fade. (literary/elevated wish)
The subjunctive हो confirms that this is a wish, not the factual statement यह स्मृति धुँधली नहीं है “this memory is not faint.”
मत: direct negative commands
Use मत when an imperative tells the addressee not to act. The command form still matches the social level.
| Addressee | Negative command | Register |
|---|---|---|
| तू | मत कर | intimate singular; potentially rude outside that relationship |
| तुम | मत करो / मत करना | familiar everyday |
| आप | मत कीजिए / मत कीजिएगा | respectful everyday |
दरवाज़ा मत खोलो; बाहर बहुत धुआँ है।
darvāzā mat kholo; bāhar bahut dhuā̃ hai.
Don't open the door; there is a lot of smoke outside. (familiar)
कृपया इस लिंक पर क्लिक मत कीजिएगा।
kripyā is liṅk par klik mat kījiegā.
Please do not click this link. (respectful warning)
The infinitive after मत, as in मत खोलना, is a common familiar reminder or standing instruction. It does not mean that the addressee agreement has disappeared; the relationship remains familiar from context.
मेरे आने से पहले खाना शुरू मत करना।
mere āne se pahle khānā śurū mat karnā.
Don't start eating before I arrive. (familiar instruction)
नहीं can occur in an emphatic refusal such as मैं नहीं जाऊँगा, but that means “I will not go,” not “don't go.” A prohibition must target the addressee grammatically or pragmatically.
मत versus formal prohibitive न
Official notices, instructions, recipes, and careful public announcements often use न + subjunctive/honorific form. This is (formal) and usually more impersonal than मत.
आपातकालीन निकास के सामने सामान न रखें।
āpātkālīn nikās ke sāmne sāmān na rakheṃ.
Do not place luggage in front of the emergency exit. (formal notice)
दवा खाली पेट न लें।
davā xālī peṭ na leṃ.
Do not take the medicine on an empty stomach. (formal instruction)
Addressing a friend, यहाँ सामान मत रखो is natural. Printing that form on a public sign would sound personal and conversational. Conversely, यहाँ सामान न रखें in a living-room conversation can sound like an announcement or written rule, though it remains grammatical.
This is genuine overlap: both forms aim to prevent an action, but मत directly manages the addressee while formal न frames a general or institutionally voiced prescription.
A short dialogue: correcting speech act and tone
अ: क्या मैं यह दरवाज़ा खोलूँ? ब: नहीं, मत खोलिए; दूसरी तरफ़ निर्माण का काम चल रहा है। अ: ठीक है—सूचना-पट पर ‘दरवाज़ा न खोलें’ लिख देते हैं।
a: kyā maĩ yah darvāzā kholū̃? ba: nahīṃ, mat kholie; dūsrī taraf nirmāṇ kā kām cal rahā hai. a: ṭhīk hai—sūcnā-paṭ par ‘darvāzā na kholeṃ’ likh dete haiṃ.
A: Shall I open this door? B: No, don't open it; construction work is going on on the other side. A: All right—let's write ‘Do not open the door’ on the notice board. (respectful conversation, formal sign)
The standalone नहीं answers the yes–no question. मत खोलिए then gives B's respectful direct prohibition. The posted rule shifts to impersonal formal न खोलें. English no/not/don't does not reveal these three different jobs.
Diagnostic checklist
- Is the sentence denying a proposition, or trying to prevent an action?
- Is the negative event finite and factual (नहीं) or embedded/hypothetical/non-finite (न)?
- If it is a prohibition, is the listener directly addressed (मत) or is the instruction formal and impersonal (न)?
- Does particle placement change scope, as in फ़ैसला नहीं किया versus न जाने का फ़ैसला किया?
- Is न part of a construction such as कहीं...न, न...न, या न, or a wish?
- Does the imperative form still match तू, तुम, or आप?
Common Mistakes
❌ मैं आज मत जाऊँगा।
Incorrect—मत prohibits an addressee; it does not form a first-person factual refusal.
✅ मैं आज नहीं जाऊँगा।
maĩ āj nahīṃ jāū̃gā.
I will not go today. (masculine speaker)
❌ तुम इस तार को नहीं छुओ!
Nonstandard for a neutral direct prohibition; factual नहीं does not replace imperative मत here.
✅ तुम इस तार को मत छुओ!
tum is tār ko mat chuo!
Don't touch this wire! (familiar warning)
❌ उसने नौकरी छोड़ने का फ़ैसला नहीं किया।
Wrong for ‘she decided not to quit’; this denies making the quitting decision at all.
✅ उसने नौकरी न छोड़ने का फ़ैसला किया।
usne naukrī na choṛne kā faislā kiyā.
She decided not to quit the job.
❌ संग्रहालय की वस्तुओं को मत छुओ।
Too familiar and personally addressed for a neutral public museum notice.
✅ संग्रहालय की वस्तुओं को न छुएँ।
saṅgrahālay kī vastuoṃ ko na chueṃ.
Do not touch the museum objects. (formal public notice)
Key Takeaways
Use नहीं to deny or question ordinary facts, मत to prohibit an addressee directly, and न when negation is subordinate, non-finite, paired, apprehensive, wished for, or phrased as a formal impersonal prohibition. The boundaries are driven by syntax, scope, speech act, and register—not by a one-word translation of English not. Where forms overlap, they reframe the same negative content as fact, embedded possibility, personal command, or institutional rule.
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- नहीं in simple finite clausesA1 — Negate ordinary Hindi statements with नहीं while keeping predicate-final order, agreement, tense, and the distinction from न and मत.
- न as formal literary or subordinate negationA2 — Use न in subordinate irrealis clauses, formal prohibitions, fixed expressions, and marked literary finite negation without replacing ordinary नहीं everywhere.
- मत in negative imperativesA2 — Form direct negative commands with मत plus an imperative or infinitive form, and distinguish them from factual नहीं and formal prohibitive न.
- Negative infinitives and बिनाB1 — Negate infinitival and non-finite events with न, and express ‘without doing’ with बिना plus an oblique participial form.
- नहीं placement and constituent scopeA2 — Place नहीं before the Hindi predicate or a contrasted constituent, and use word order and prosody to show exactly what is being denied.
- Negative imperatives with मतB1 — Form direct Hindi prohibitions with मत while preserving the command form appropriate to तू, तुम, or आप.