The Negative Imperative

Telling someone not to do something is where the Romanian imperative springs its biggest surprise. You might reasonably expect that to forbid an action you simply put nu in front of the command — that Vino! (Come!) would become Nu vino! (Don't come!). It does not. The negative singular imperative throws away the affirmative form entirely and reaches for the short infinitive instead: Nu veni! The affirmative and negative singular commands are built on different stems, and this is one of the genuine, must-memorize irregularities of the language. The plural, mercifully, behaves more predictably. This page lays out both halves and drills them as the paired opposites they really are.

The singular rule: nu + short infinitive

For the negative familiar command (one person, tu), use nu + the short infinitive — that is, the infinitive without the a particle: a cânta → Nu cânta!, a merge → Nu merge!, a vorbi → Nu vorbi!

Look at the irregular verbs in particular. The affirmative Vino! and the negative Nu veni! share no obvious stem — vino vs veni. Fă! becomes Nu face!. Fii! becomes Nu fi!. The two commands are, for these verbs, entirely different words. This is the heart of the irregularity.

The plural rule: nu + indicative 2pl

For the negative plural (and polite singular) command, the surprise vanishes. You simply put nu in front of the affirmative plural form — which, recall, is the indicative 2pl. So the plural negates exactly the way you would expect.

So the asymmetry is precisely this: the negative singular changes the stem (affirmative Vino! → negative Nu veni!), while the negative plural does not (affirmative Veniți! → negative Nu veniți!).

Paired drill: affirmative vs negative

Because the singular forms differ so sharply, the only reliable way to learn them is in pairs. Read these aloud as units:

Notice in the last two examples how the clitic pronoun behaves differently: in the affirmative it attaches to the end (dă-i), while in the negative it moves in front of the verb (nu-i da). That clitic shift is covered fully on the imperatives with clitics page, but it is part of why affirmative and negative commands feel like different constructions.

Reflexive negative commands

With reflexive verbs the same logic holds, and the reflexive clitic — which attached to the affirmative — comes back in front in the negative: Du-te! → Nu te duce!; Grăbește-te! → Nu te grăbi!; Așază-te! → Nu te așeza!

Why this is so hard for English speakers

English negates a command by adding "don't" and leaving the verb untouched: "Come!" → "Don't come!". The verb "come" never changes. Romanian, by contrast, changes the verb form itself in the singular — vino becomes veni — so the learner who maps "Don't + (the affirmative command)" produces the wrong word every time. The most common error in the entire imperative system is *Nu vino!, a direct calque of "Don't come!" that no native speaker would say. The fix is to retrain the reflex: for negative singular commands, forget the affirmative and reach for the infinitive.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The negative singular command = nu + short infinitive: Nu cânta!, Nu veni!, Nu face!, Nu fi! — not the affirmative form.
• The negative plural command = nu + indicative 2pl: Nu cântați!, Nu veniți! — exactly as expected.
• So affirmative Vino! / Du-te! become negative Nu veni! / Nu te duce! — different stems, learned as pairs.
• Reflexive clitics attach in the affirmative (du-te!) but move in front in the negative (nu te duce!).
• The number-one error is the calque *Nu vino! — to forbid an action, reach for the infinitive, never the affirmative command.