Negative Imperative | Portuguese (Brazil) Grammar

To tell someone not to do something in Brazilian Portuguese, you put não in front of the present subjunctive form of the verb. This single rule covers every verb, regular or irregular, for both você and vocês. The negative imperative is one of the cleanest facts in the whole language — there is exactly one form, and it is always subjunctive-based.

The rule

não + present subjunctive.

Verb	Negative (você)	Negative (vocês)	Meaning
falar	não fale	não falem	don't speak
comer	não coma	não comam	don't eat
partir	não parta	não partam	don't leave
fazer	não faça	não façam	don't do/make
ir	não vá	não vão	don't go
vir	não venha	não venham	don't come

Não fale tão alto, o bebê está dormindo.

Don't talk so loud, the baby is sleeping.

Não coma com a boca aberta, por favor.

Don't eat with your mouth open, please.

Não se preocupe, eu resolvo isso amanhã.

Don't worry, I'll sort this out tomorrow.

Notice in não se preocupe that the pronoun se comes before the verb. The negative imperative is one of the strongest triggers for placing object pronouns before the verb (proclisis) — não itself pulls the pronoun forward. More on that in the imperative + clitics page.

Why subjunctive? The deep logic

This isn't arbitrary. The affirmative você imperative is already a subjunctive form (fale, coma, venha), and the negative simply keeps that subjunctive and adds não. The deeper reason both lean on the subjunctive is meaning: a command is about an action you want to become true (or, when negated, an action you want to not happen) — it lives in the realm of wishes and not-yet-facts. That is precisely the territory the subjunctive marks throughout the language. So "I want you to not speak" and "Don't speak" share the same modal flavor, and the same verb form.

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The subjunctive isn't an exotic add-on here — the negative imperative is your first everyday encounter with it. Once you can say não fale, não vá, não faça, you already control the present-subjunctive endings.

The asymmetry that surprises everyone

Here is the headline fact. In casual Brazilian speech the affirmative command often uses the tu-form (fala!, come!, vem!), but the negative almost always switches to the subjunctive form:

Affirmative (casual, tu-form)	Negative (standard, subjunctive)
Fala! (Speak! / Talk!)	Não fale! (Don't speak!)
Come! (Eat!)	Não coma! (Don't eat!)
Vem! (Come!)	Não venha! (Don't come!)
Vai! (Go!)	Não vá! (Don't go!)

Fala a verdade, mas não fale assim na frente das crianças.

Tell the truth, but don't say it like that in front of the kids.

Vai lá rápido, mas não vá sozinho.

Go there quick, but don't go alone.

So não fala is not the textbook negation of fala — the standard negation is não fale, even though it doesn't visually "match." Learners instinctively try to negate fala by just sticking não in front of it, and that's where the trouble starts.

"Não fala" does exist — but it's colloquial

To be honest about the spoken language: you will hear não fala, não come, não vai, não esquece all over Brazil. In rapid, intimate speech, many people negate by simply prefixing não to the tu-form imperative.

Não esquece de comprar pão, viu?

Don't forget to buy bread, okay? — common spoken form, non-standard.

Não fica triste, vai dar tudo certo.

Don't be sad, everything's going to be fine. — casual, very common.

This is genuinely widespread and not "wrong" in conversation. But it is non-standard: it won't appear in formal writing, it's marked down in school grammar, and the subjunctive form (não esqueça, não fique) is what you want in any careful or written context. We label it clearly so you know both: recognize não fica in speech, write não fique.

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Safe default for learners: use the subjunctive negative (não fale, não esqueça, não fique) everywhere. It's correct in every register — formal and informal alike — whereas the colloquial não fala is only safe in very casual speech.

English-speaker perspective

English negates the imperative with a tidy auxiliary: don't + bare verb (don't speak, don't go, don't worry). There is no change to the verb form at all. Portuguese, by contrast, makes you do two things English never asks for:

Change the verb itself to the subjunctive (fale → in não fale, vá, faça).
Move object pronouns in front of the verb because of não (don't worry → não *se preocupe, not *não preocupe-se).

The pronoun-placement point is the sneakiest for English speakers, because in the affirmative you may have learned enclitic forms like preocupe-se, and the negative flips them.

Common Mistakes

❌ Não fala tão alto. (writing / formal context)

Non-standard — the negative imperative should use the subjunctive in careful Portuguese.

✅ Não fale tão alto.

Don't talk so loud.

❌ Não vai embora ainda. (formal)

Non-standard for writing — should be the subjunctive form.

✅ Não vá embora ainda.

Don't leave yet.

❌ Não preocupe-se.

Incorrect — não forces the pronoun before the verb.

✅ Não se preocupe.

Don't worry.

❌ Não fazes isso! (BR)

Incorrect — this is the indicative; the negative imperative needs the subjunctive.

✅ Não faça isso!

Don't do that!

❌ Não comem aqui, por favor. (meaning 'don't eat here', addressing a group)

Ambiguous/indicative-looking; the subjunctive plural is comam.

✅ Não comam aqui, por favor.

Don't eat here, please. (to several people)

Key Takeaways

Negative command = não + present subjunctive, always — for both você (não fale) and vocês (não falem).
This holds even when the affirmative used the casual tu-form: Fala! but Não fale!
The negative imperative pulls object pronouns before the verb: não se preocupe, não me diga.
Colloquial não fala/não esquece exist in speech but are non-standard; use the subjunctive form to be safe everywhere.

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