Italian Negative Imperative
Just like you can give affirmative orders and instructions in Italian, you can give negative orders and instructions if you want someone to not perform an action. As you know already, the Italian word that is used to create negations is non and it always precedes the verb it negates.
While in English we simply add the negation before the verb, in Italian things are a little different and perhaps more difficult, but do not worry, I will explain to you how to do it. First, I will give you an overview of the different forms of the Italian imperative:
- Informal imperative: Imperative form addressed to the second person singular tu. The Italian informal imperative has two different conjugations, depending on whether the verb is affirmative or negative.
- Formal imperative: Imperative form addressed to the formal third person singular lei. This has one form only, for both affirmative or negative verbs.
- Imperative with pronouns: Pronouns with imperative verbs can be displayed in four different ways, depending on the subject (tu vs lei) and whether the verb is affirmative or negative.
Now, I will show you how you can form negative structures of both formal and informal imperatives in Italian.
How to Form the Negative Imperative in Italian?
The affirmative informal imperative in Italian is a verb conjugation on itself – although some of its forms are the same as others. The negative informal imperative in Italian results of simply adding non before the verb in all forms, except for the second person singular tu.
The structure of the negative imperative with tu is non + verb in the infinitive.
Have a look at the examples below:
Gianluca, non mangiare troppo cioccolato.
Gianluca, do not eat too much chocolate.
(Tu) Non uscire stasera, rimani qui con me!
Don’t go out tonight, stay here with me!
Anna, non chiudere la porta, sta per arrivare Ludo.
Anna, don’t lock the door, Ludo’s coming.
As I mentioned before, with all the other personal pronouns we simply need to add the word non before the verb in its imperative form: voi, noi, lei + non + verb in the imperative.
(Voi) Non andate al lago oggi, non c’è il sole!
Don’t go to the lake today, it’s not sunny!
(Lei formal) Non apra la porta!
Do not open the door!
(Noi) Per favore, non cominciamo!
Please, let’s not start!
Irregular Negative Imperative Forms in Italian
If you are familiar with the Italian congiuntivo presente, you might have noticed that it overlaps with some irregular forms of the Italian imperative, especially when conjugated in the formal form lei.
The same pattern is kept for negations, of course. Some examples of irregular imperatives are shown below:
Non siate tristi!
Do not be sad!
Non abbia paura, signora!
Do not be afraid, madam!
Non creda a quello che Le racconta!
Do not believe what he tells You!
