To make a sentence negative in Brazilian Portuguese you mostly need one small word: não, placed right before the verb. That is the whole basic rule, and it is far simpler than English, which drags in "do/does/did" to carry the negation. The interesting parts come next: Portuguese requires double negation in cases where English forbids it, and Brazilian speech has a charming emphatic pattern that puts a second não at the very end of the sentence.
Basic negation: não before the verb
Put não immediately before the conjugated verb. Nothing else moves. There is no auxiliary, no contraction, no change to the verb itself.
Eu não sei.
I don't know.
A gente não viu o filme ainda.
We haven't seen the movie yet.
Ela não mora mais aqui.
She doesn't live here anymore.
Compare Eu não sei with English "I don't know." English needs "do" plus "not"; Portuguese needs only não glued in front of the verb. Where English splits the negation across an auxiliary and "not," Portuguese keeps it in one place.
If there is an auxiliary or a pronoun, não still goes before the whole verb cluster:
Eu não vou conseguir terminar hoje.
I'm not going to be able to finish today.
Não me ligue depois das dez.
Don't call me after ten.
Double negation: required, not wrong
In English, "I didn't see nobody" is considered an error — two negatives are said to cancel out. Brazilian Portuguese works on the opposite principle: when a negative word like nada (nothing), ninguém (nobody), nenhum (no/none), or nunca (never) comes after the verb, you must also keep não before the verb. The two negatives reinforce each other; they do not cancel.
Não vi ninguém na festa.
I didn't see anybody at the party.
Não tem nada na geladeira.
There's nothing in the fridge.
Ele não fala com ninguém de manhã.
He doesn't talk to anybody in the morning.
Notice the English translations use "anybody / nothing / anybody" — English switches to a positive-polarity word (anybody) precisely because it already has one negative. Portuguese instead piles a second negative on top. The mental adjustment for English speakers is to stop treating two negatives as a contradiction.
The rule has a neat exception: if the negative word comes before the verb, it carries the negation by itself and you drop não.
Ninguém me avisou.
Nobody warned me.
Nada disso importa agora.
None of that matters now.
So you say Não vi ninguém (negative word after the verb → keep não) but Ninguém me viu (negative word before the verb → no não). Putting both would be wrong: ❌ Ninguém não me viu is ungrammatical in standard Portuguese.
The negative words
| Word | Meaning | Positive counterpart |
|---|---|---|
| não | not / no | sim (yes) |
| nada | nothing | algo, alguma coisa (something) |
| ninguém | nobody | alguém (somebody) |
| nenhum / nenhuma | no, none (of) | algum / alguma (some) |
| nunca / jamais | never | sempre (always) |
| nem | not even / nor | também (also) |
nunca and jamais
Both mean "never." nunca is the everyday word; jamais is more emphatic and somewhat literary, often translating "never ever" / "by no means." (literary / emphatic)
Nunca fui a Salvador.
I've never been to Salvador.
Eu jamais faria isso com você.
I would never (ever) do that to you.
Like other negative words, nunca before the verb needs no não, but nunca after the verb does: Não vou nunca mais lá ("I'm never going there again").
nem — not even / nor
nem is the negative of também ("also"). It means "not even" when emphasizing, and "nor / neither" when joining negatives.
Ele nem me cumprimentou.
He didn't even say hi to me.
Não tenho tempo nem dinheiro.
I have neither time nor money.
A useful set phrase: nem... nem... ("neither... nor...").
Nem eu nem ele sabíamos a resposta.
Neither I nor he knew the answer.
The emphatic sentence-final não
Here is a feature with no clean English equivalent. In casual Brazilian speech, you can reinforce a negation by repeating não at the very end of the sentence. The first não does the grammatical negating; the second one adds emphasis, conviction, or a friendly, conversational tone. (informal, very common in speech)
Eu não sei, não.
I really don't know.
Não gosto de coentro, não.
I don't like cilantro, I don't.
Não foi por mal, não.
It wasn't meant badly, honestly.
In very fast speech the first não can even drop, leaving only the final one: Sei não ("Nope, don't know"), Tem não ("Nope, there isn't any"). This is heard a lot in the Northeast and in relaxed speech generally. (informal, regional emphasis)
— Quer mais? — Quero não, obrigado.
— Want more? — Nah, I'm good, thanks.
The closest English feels are the tag-like "...I don't" ("I don't like it, I don't") or a softening "nah" — but the Brazilian pattern is far more common and neutral than either. It does not sound dialectal or uneducated; it is simply how negation gets warmth and emphasis in everyday Brazil.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu faço não entender.
Incorrect — inventing a 'do'-auxiliary for negation.
✅ Eu não entendo.
I don't understand.
❌ Vi ninguém na rua.
Incorrect — a negative word after the verb still requires 'não' before it.
✅ Não vi ninguém na rua.
I didn't see anybody on the street.
❌ Não tem alguma coisa para comer?
Incorrect — inside a negative, use the negative-polarity 'nada', not 'alguma coisa'.
✅ Não tem nada para comer?
Isn't there anything to eat?
❌ Ninguém não me ajudou.
Incorrect — when the negative word precedes the verb, drop 'não'.
✅ Ninguém me ajudou.
Nobody helped me.
❌ Não quero não mais café.
Incorrect — the emphatic 'não' goes at the very end of the sentence, not before 'mais'.
✅ Não quero mais café, não.
I don't want any more coffee, really.
Key takeaways
- Basic negation is não before the verb — no "do," no auxiliary.
- A negative word after the verb forces a second negative: não + verb + nada/ninguém/nunca. The two reinforce; they don't cancel.
- A negative word before the verb negates alone, with no não (Ninguém veio).
- The sentence-final não (Não vou, não) is a Brazilian colloquial emphasizer with no direct English equivalent — friendly, not erroneous.
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- Declarative SentencesA1 — The default statement sentence — affirmative and negative — with stable SVO order, falling intonation, and negation by simply placing 'não' before the verb.
- Double Negation in BRA2 — Why Brazilian Portuguese requires both 'não' and a negative word — 'não vi ninguém' — and when the second 'não' disappears.
- Yes/No Questions in BRA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese forms yes/no questions with intonation alone, the all-purpose tag né?, and the habit of answering by echoing the verb.
- 'There is/are': Tem and HáA1 — How Brazilian Portuguese expresses existence with the invariable everyday 'tem', the formal 'há', and 'existir' — plus past and future forms.