To negate a present clause whose finite verb is the copula होना, place नहीं before the agreeing form: नहीं हूँ, नहीं हो, नहीं है, नहीं हैं. Thus मैं तैयार हूँ becomes मैं तैयार नहीं हूँ. The particle stays unchanged; the copula still marks person, number, and honorificity.
English places not after am/is/are. Neutral Hindi uses the opposite local order: predicate + नहीं + copula. Learning that small sequence prevents one of the most persistent English-to-Hindi transfer errors.
The present negative paradigm
| Subject | Affirmative ending | Negative ending |
|---|---|---|
| मैं | हूँ | नहीं हूँ |
| तुम | हो | नहीं हो |
| यह / वह | है | नहीं है |
| हम / आप / ये / वे | हैं | नहीं हैं |
मैं आज व्यस्त हूँ।
maĩ āj vyast hū̃.
I am busy today.
मैं आज व्यस्त नहीं हूँ।
maĩ āj vyast nahīṃ hū̃.
I am not busy today.
आप इस विभाग के प्रभारी हैं।
āp is vibhāg ke prabhārī haiṃ.
You are in charge of this department. (respectful)
आप इस विभाग के प्रभारी नहीं हैं।
āp is vibhāg ke prabhārī nahīṃ haiṃ.
You are not in charge of this department. (respectful)
Respectful singular आप uses plural/honorific हैं, even when it refers to one person. Negation does not change that agreement.
Identity and classification
A noun predicate identifies or classifies the subject. It normally has no article or postposition.
कबीर इस पुस्तक के लेखक नहीं हैं।
kabīr is pustak ke lekhak nahīṃ haiṃ.
Kabir is not the author of this book. (honorific)
यह कमरा कार्यालय नहीं है; यह भंडार-कक्ष है।
yah kamrā kāryālay nahīṃ hai; yah bhaṇḍār-kakṣ hai.
This room is not an office; it is a storage room.
The semicolon makes the correction explicit. नहीं denies the category कार्यालय; the second clause supplies the right category. Hindi does not insert एक simply because English says “an office.”
Property and state
Adjectival and participial predicates follow the same order.
आज समुद्र शांत नहीं है।
āj samudra śānt nahīṃ hai.
The sea is not calm today.
ये आँकड़े अभी अंतिम नहीं हैं।
ye ā̃kaṛe abhī antim nahīṃ haiṃ.
These figures are not final yet.
Agreement inside the predicate still matters when the predicate has an agreeing form:
खिड़कियाँ पूरी तरह खुली नहीं हैं।
khiṛkiyā̃ pūrī tarah khulī nahīṃ haiṃ.
The windows are not fully open.
Feminine plural खिड़कियाँ selects खुली हैं. नहीं neither carries nor blocks that agreement.
Location, existence, and availability
Locative and existential clauses use the same negative sequence, even though English may translate them with be, there is, or have.
आज निदेशक कार्यालय में नहीं हैं।
āj nideśak kāryālay meṃ nahīṃ haiṃ.
The director is not in the office today. (honorific)
इस इमारत में लिफ़्ट नहीं है।
is imārat meṃ lifṭ nahīṃ hai.
There is no elevator in this building.
मेरे पास अभी सौ रुपये के छुट्टे नहीं हैं।
mere pās abhī sau rupaye ke chuṭṭe nahīṃ haiṃ.
I do not have change for a hundred rupees right now.
In the possession example, मेरे पास is a locative possessor and plural छुट्टे selects हैं. Do not choose the copula from English “I”; Hindi has no nominative मैं in this structure. The full range of this pattern is introduced under existential होना.
Full copula and ordinary omission
Present है/हैं is often omitted after नहीं in everyday negative nominal and adjectival clauses:
मैं अभी तैयार नहीं।
maĩ abhī taiyār nahīṃ.
I'm not ready yet. (informal)
ये सीटें खाली नहीं।
ye sīṭeṃ khālī nahīṃ.
These seats aren't empty. (informal)
The full मैं अभी तैयार नहीं हूँ and ये सीटें खाली नहीं हैं are also correct and are the safest beginner and edited-prose forms. Omission is especially natural in short replies, corrections, status updates, and brisk conversation. Because the missing copula would have expressed person or number, context must make those features recoverable.
Positive clauses behave differently. मैं तैयार can work as a clipped response, caption, or headline-like utterance, but neutral positive prose requires मैं तैयार हूँ. Negation licenses omission more broadly than affirmation does.
Some idioms prefer the shorter shape
कोई बात नहीं; देर सबको कभी न कभी हो जाती है।
koī bāt nahīṃ; der sabko kabhī na kabhī ho jātī hai.
No problem; everyone is late at some point.
In the reassuring formula कोई बात नहीं, adding है is possible but often sounds more literal or weighty. The conventional short form should be learned as an idiom. By contrast, a factual existential statement such as यहाँ कोई दिक्कत नहीं है readily keeps है.
This is an honest lexical fact: there is no algorithm that predicts the preferred rhythm of every fixed expression. Exposure and phrase-level learning matter.
Broad negation and narrow constituent contrast
यह मशीन महँगी नहीं है।
yah maśīn mahãgī nahīṃ hai.
This machine is not expensive.
यह मशीन लाल नहीं, नीली है।
yah maśīn lāl nahīṃ, nīlī hai.
This machine is blue, not red.
The first denies the property महँगी. The second rejects only लाल and replaces it with नीली; one final copula supports the contrast.
Focus particles change the scope further:
यह रास्ता सिर्फ़ लंबा नहीं है; काफ़ी कठिन भी है।
yah rāstā sirf lambā nahīṃ hai; kāfī kaṭhin bhī hai.
This route is not merely long; it is also quite difficult.
Here सिर्फ़ … नहीं means “not only/merely,” not “not long.” English stress can distinguish those readings; Hindi relies on focus particles, position, and the continuation.
Emphatic post-copular negation
Neutral order is नहीं है, but conversation also has emphatic है ही नहीं:
इस कमरे में खिड़की है ही नहीं!
is kamre meṃ khiṛkī hai hī nahīṃ!
This room simply has no window! (informal, emphatic)
The particle ही creates an emphatic denial of existence. This marked order does not make plain है नहीं the default. A learner who uses है नहीं everywhere sounds as though they are correcting or echoing a disputed claim.
Polite and direct dialogue turns
क्या आप अभी खाली हैं? — माफ़ कीजिए, मैं इस समय खाली नहीं हूँ।
kyā āp abhī khālī haiṃ? — māf kījie, maĩ is samay khālī nahīṃ hū̃.
Are you free now? — Sorry, I am not free at the moment. (respectful)
चाबी तुम्हारे पास है? — नहीं, मेरे पास नहीं है।
cābī tumhāre pās hai? — nahīṃ, mere pās nahīṃ hai.
Do you have the key? — No, I don't. (familiar)
The short answer retains है, while its subject चाबी is understood from the question. Hindi can omit recoverable noun phrases independently of whether it omits the copula.
मत and न are not copular substitutes
मत forms a negative command and cannot replace नहीं in a statement of identity or state. न occurs in marked or subordinate environments such as ताकि कमरा खाली न हो “so that the room is not empty.” A neutral factual present uses नहीं.
कृपया परेशान मत होइए; आपकी बुकिंग रद्द नहीं है।
kripyā pareśān mat hoie; āpkī bukiṅg radd nahīṃ hai.
Please don't worry; your booking has not been canceled. (respectful)
The first clause is a prohibition with मत; the second is a factual negative state with नहीं है.
Common Mistakes
❌ मैं नया प्रशिक्षक हूँ नहीं।
Incorrect neutral order—English places not after the copula, but Hindi places नहीं before हूँ.
✅ मैं नया प्रशिक्षक नहीं हूँ।
maĩ nayā praśikṣak nahīṃ hū̃.
I am not the new instructor. (male speaker)
❌ आप आज उपलब्ध नहीं है।
Incorrect—respectful आप requires plural/honorific हैं.
✅ आप आज दोपहर उपलब्ध नहीं हैं।
āp āj dopahar uplabdh nahīṃ haiṃ.
You are not available this afternoon. (respectful)
❌ मैं पैसे नहीं हूँ।
Incorrect English-influenced possession—Hindi uses a locative possessor with पास.
✅ मेरे पास अभी पर्याप्त पैसे नहीं हैं।
mere pās abhī paryāpt paise nahīṃ haiṃ.
I do not have enough money right now.
❌ यह उत्तर सही मत है।
Incorrect—मत negates commands, not a factual copular statement.
✅ यह उत्तर पूरी तरह सही नहीं है।
yah uttar pūrī tarah sahī nahīṃ hai.
This answer is not completely correct.
Key Takeaways
- The full present pattern is predicate + नहीं हूँ/हो/है/हैं.
- नहीं is invariant, while the copula continues to express person, number, and honorificity.
- Identity, property, location, existence, availability, and possession all use the same local negative order.
- Everyday Hindi often omits a recoverable present copula after नहीं, but full forms remain correct and are safest in edited prose.
- Constituent contrast, focus particles, and emphatic है ही नहीं have meanings beyond simple sentence negation.
Related Topics
- Present copula हूँ हो है हैंA1 — Choose हूँ, हो, है, or हैं by person, number, and honorificity, and use the present copula as both a main verb and an auxiliary.
- Negative copula patternsA1 — Negate identity, property, location, and auxiliary predicates with नहीं while preserving copula agreement and controlling scope.
- Existential होनाA1 — Express that something exists or is available with a location or domain, an existent noun phrase, and an agreeing form of होना.
- Nominal predicates without an overt copulaC1 — Identify the restricted Hindi contexts where a nominal predicate can omit present होना, and distinguish zero copula from fragments, headlines, and coordination ellipsis.
- Plural agreement with singular आपB2 — Track plural-honorific agreement with one आप across copulas, habituals, progressives, futures, perfectives, predicates, and imperatives.
- 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.