The ordinary Hindi particle for denying a statement is नहीं. It is invariant—it never changes for person, gender, or number—and normally stands immediately before the predicate: रीना आज नहीं आएगी “Reena will not come today.” The verb still carries the tense, aspect, agreement, and honorific information that the affirmative clause would carry.
English often builds a negative with do not or places not after an auxiliary. Hindi has no negative equivalent of English do. It keeps the predicate at the end and places नहीं at the left edge of that predicate.
The basic affirmative–negative contrast
Compare the same clause with and without नहीं:
अर्जुन शाम को लौटेगा।
arjun śām ko lauṭegā.
Arjun will return in the evening.
अर्जुन शाम को नहीं लौटेगा।
arjun śām ko nahīṃ lauṭegā.
Arjun will not return in the evening.
मीरा ने दरवाज़ा खोला।
mīrā ne darvāzā kholā.
Meera opened the door.
मीरा ने दरवाज़ा नहीं खोला।
mīrā ne darvāzā nahīṃ kholā.
Meera did not open the door.
The noun phrases and their case markers remain in place. In the second pair, ने does not disappear under negation. Only the truth of the opening event is denied.
Normal position after objects and ordinary adverbials
Hindi normally organizes a simple clause as subject – time/place – object – नहीं – predicate.
हम आज संग्रहालय नहीं जाएँगे।
ham āj saṅgrahālay nahīṃ jāẽge.
We will not go to the museum today.
सोनल ने सुबह मेरा संदेश नहीं पढ़ा।
sonal ne subah merā sandeś nahīṃ paṛhā.
Sonal did not read my message in the morning.
Moving नहीं before the subject or between unrelated noun phrases does not reproduce English order. The detailed interaction with time, manner, and focus appears under negation and adverb placement.
With a multiword predicate, नहीं normally precedes the portion it negates:
वे हमारी मदद नहीं कर पाए।
ve hamārī madad nahīṃ kar pāe.
They were not able to help us.
The lexical action कर and ability verb पाए form one complex predicate. The placement मदद नहीं कर पाए denies successful ability to help. The internal formation of पाए belongs to the modal pages; at this level, learn the whole negative predicate as a unit.
Wide sentence negation and narrow correction
Neutral pre-predicate नहीं usually denies the event as a whole:
निखिल ने टिकट नहीं ख़रीदा।
nikhil ne ṭikaṭ nahīṃ xarīdā.
Nikhil did not buy the ticket.
To reject one constituent rather than the entire event, Hindi often places नहीं directly after the rejected phrase and supplies a correction.
निखिल ने टिकट सोमवार को नहीं, मंगलवार को ख़रीदा।
nikhil ne ṭikaṭ somvār ko nahīṃ, maṅgalvār ko xarīdā.
Nikhil bought the ticket on Tuesday, not Monday.
The second sentence affirms the purchase but corrects its day. English relies heavily on stress for “not Monday”; Hindi uses order, contrastive intonation, and the overt alternative मंगलवार को.
Quantifiers create another scope contrast:
सब मेहमान नहीं आए।
sab mehmān nahīṃ āe.
Not all the guests came.
This normally means that some guests failed to come, not that nobody came. To say “Nobody came,” use a negative indefinite:
कोई मेहमान नहीं आया।
koī mehmān nahīṃ āyā.
No guest came.
Negative indefinites are a single negative pattern
Hindi commonly combines कोई, कुछ, कभी with नहीं:
मुझे रास्ते में कुछ नहीं मिला।
mujhe rāste meṃ kuch nahīṃ milā.
I found nothing on the way.
वह इस विषय पर कभी नहीं बोली।
vah is viṣay par kabhī nahīṃ bolī.
She never spoke about this subject.
English learners are sometimes taught to avoid two negative-looking words in one clause. That English rule does not apply here. कोई/कुछ/कभी are polarity-sensitive indefinites, and नहीं supplies clause negation. The combination expresses one semantic negative, not a positive created by “two negatives.”
नहीं, न, and मत have different jobs
नहीं is the neutral negative for factual statements and most ordinary questions. मत negates commands. न appears in prohibitions of some registers, in paired constructions, and especially in subordinate or prospective patterns such as ताकि देर न हो “so that it is not late.”
| Form | Core use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| नहीं | statement denial | वह आज नहीं आएगा। |
| मत | negative command | यहाँ मत बैठो। |
| न | subordinate, paired, formal, or marked negation | ताकि कोई गलती न हो |
यह बटन मत दबाइए।
yah baṭan mat dabāie.
Please do not press this button. (respectful command)
उन्होंने यह बटन नहीं दबाया।
unhoṃne yah baṭan nahīṃ dabāyā.
They did not press this button. (statement)
The difference is syntactic, not merely polite versus impolite. मत addresses someone and tries to prevent an action; नहीं reports or predicts that the action does not occur.
Auxiliary behavior is construction-specific
In a fully expressed finite predicate, नहीं normally comes before the aspectual or auxiliary sequence:
मैं कल उपलब्ध नहीं रहूँगा।
maĩ kal uplabdh nahīṃ rahū̃gā.
I will not be available tomorrow. (male speaker)
Some present habitual negatives naturally omit है/हैं, while progressive negatives usually retain their auxiliary. Copular negatives can omit the present copula in some everyday contexts. These are separate constructional patterns, not a general command to delete whatever follows नहीं. The next two pages compare those environments directly.
Direct and polite dialogue turns
तुम आज हमारे साथ नहीं चलोगे? — नहीं, मुझे घर पर काम पूरा करना है।
tum āj hamāre sāth nahīṃ caloge? — nahīṃ, mujhe ghar par kām pūrā karnā hai.
Aren't you coming with us today? — No, I have to finish some work at home. (familiar)
Here the first नहीं is clause negation; the answer नहीं is a standalone response particle. The question can express surprise or check an expectation, but it keeps ordinary Hindi clause order.
क्या आप कल कार्यालय नहीं आएँगे? — जी, कल मैं शहर में नहीं रहूँगा।
kyā āp kal kāryālay nahīṃ āẽge? — jī, kal maĩ śahar meṃ nahīṃ rahū̃gā.
Will you not come to the office tomorrow? — That's right, I won't be in the city tomorrow. (respectful; male speaker)
जी politely acknowledges the premise. Hindi answers to negative questions can be pragmatically tricky, so speakers often repeat the proposition, as here, instead of relying on a bare “yes” or “no.” Full question formation is treated elsewhere.
Lexicalized expressions are not a universal template
कोई बात नहीं, हम फिर कोशिश करेंगे।
koī bāt nahīṃ, ham phir kośiś kareṅge.
No problem; we will try again.
कोई बात नहीं is a conventional reassuring expression with a recoverable present copula. Learners should acquire it as a whole. Its shape does not mean that every English expression containing not can be translated by inserting नहीं word for word.
Common Mistakes
❌ मैं नहीं यह फ़िल्म देखूँगा।
Incorrect neutral placement—नहीं has been inserted before the object.
✅ मैं यह फ़िल्म नहीं देखूँगा।
maĩ yah film nahīṃ dekhū̃gā.
I will not watch this film. (male speaker)
❌ वह कल नहीं आया किया।
Incorrect English-style do-support—Hindi does not add करना to form a negative past statement.
✅ वह कल समारोह में नहीं आया।
vah kal samāroh meṃ nahīṃ āyā.
He did not come to the ceremony yesterday.
❌ सीमा आज दफ़्तर मत गई।
Incorrect—मत forms a prohibition, not a factual past negative.
✅ सीमा आज दफ़्तर नहीं गई।
sīmā āj daftar nahīṃ gaī.
Seema did not go to the office today.
❌ कोई छात्र आया।
Incorrect for the intended meaning 'No student came'—कोई requires clause negation in this reading.
✅ कोई छात्र सभा में नहीं आया।
koī chātra sabhā meṃ nahīṃ āyā.
No student came to the assembly.
Key Takeaways
- Neutral clause negation uses invariant नहीं immediately before the predicate.
- Objects, case markers, agreement, and tense remain part of the clause; Hindi does not add English-style do.
- X नहीं, Y corrects one constituent, while ordinary pre-predicate नहीं denies the event.
- कोई/कुछ/कभी … नहीं expresses a single negative pattern, and सब … नहीं normally means “not all.”
- Use मत for negative commands and recognize न in its own subordinate, paired, formal, or marked environments.
Related Topics
- Negation and adverb placementA2 — Place नहीं and Hindi adverbs according to predicate scope, constituent contrast, and the information structure of the clause.
- Negative copula patternsA1 — Negate identity, property, location, and auxiliary predicates with नहीं while preserving copula agreement and controlling scope.
- Negative imperatives with मतB1 — Form direct Hindi prohibitions with मत while preserving the command form appropriate to तू, तुम, or आप.
- Negative indefinites कोई नहीं and कुछ नहींB1 — Express nobody, nothing, and not any with कोई नहीं, कुछ नहीं, किसी…नहीं, while controlling scope, case, agreement, and emphatic भी.
- Negative-polarity adverbsB2 — Use कभी, कहीं, ज़रा भी, कतई, and related expressions in negatives, questions, conditions, and other non-affirmative environments.
- Simple affirmative sentencesA1 — Build complete positive Hindi statements around one finite predicate and distinguish simple expansion from coordination or subordination.