Negative commands

A Romanian negative command tells someone not to do something: Nu atingeți exponatele! (Do not touch the exhibits!) The form depends on whether you address one familiar person, several people, or one person formally. For one familiar person, the pattern is nu plus the verb's infinitive without a: a atinge becomes nu atinge.

How do you form a negative command?

For tu, put nu before the bare infinitive; for voi or formal dumneavoastră, put nu before the second-person plural present form.

1. Start with the dictionary form, such as a veni or a hotărî. The initial a is the infinitive particle, not part of the singular negative command.
2. For one familiar person, remove that particle. For example, a veni gives veni, and a hotărî gives hotărî.
3. Place nu before the remaining verb: Nu veni! (Do not come!) and Nu hotărî! (Do not decide!).

For several people or one formal addressee, use nu plus the voi form: Nu veniți! (Do not come!). The subject can stay unstated because the form and context identify the addressee.

How does the singular negative differ from the affirmative?

The singular negative is built from the infinitive without its particle a, so it does not usually copy the affirmative tu imperative or the tu present. Compare Mergi! (Go!) with Nu merge! (Do not go!), and Râzi! (Laugh!) with Nu râde! (Do not laugh!).

Do not add the infinitive particle after nu: Nu cânta! is correct, not Nu a cânta!. The same construction works with reflexive infinitives, but the reflexive pronoun changes position; a se duce gives Nu te duce! (Do not go!). See the Romanian infinitive and dictionary form for the dictionary-form terminology.

Which irregular forms should you learn separately?

Several frequent verbs have special affirmative singular forms. Their negative singular still follows the general nu plus bare infinitive pattern, so the affirmative and negative may have different forms. The plural and formal negatives use the ordinary plural form with nu.

Compare Fii calm! (Stay calm!) with Nu fi zgomotos! (Do not be noisy!). The negative has fi, not the affirmative fii. Likewise, Vino! becomes Nu veni!, and the reflexive Du-te! becomes Nu te duce!.

Where do short pronouns go in a negative command?

In a negative command, an unstressed object or reflexive pronoun comes after nu and before the verb. Affirmative imperatives use the reverse order: the pronoun follows the verb and joins it with a hyphen. Compare Îmbracă-te! (Get dressed!) with Nu te îmbrăca! (Do not get dressed!).

In negative clusters, forms such as nu-ți and nu-i may be written with a reduced clitic, while fuller forms such as nu îți and nu îi are also used. Both versions use the same order: nu, then the clitic, then the verb. For the wider reflexive system, see Romanian reflexive pronouns.

How can you make a negative request more polite?

A bare negative imperative is not automatically rude. It can be a normal safety instruction, invitation, warning, or firm order. Its force depends on the relationship, intonation, setting, and expressions such as te rog or vă rog. In a service interaction or with an unfamiliar person, a request frame with the present subjunctive offers an explicitly polite alternative.

The frame vă rog să nu is explicitly polite and uses the formal dumneavoastră form inside the subjunctive clause: Vă rog să nu intrați. (Please do not enter.) By contrast, Nu intrați! is the same plural/formal negative imperative and can be neutral or firm depending on the situation. The imperative itself is not a fixed label for rude speech. See the present subjunctive with să, polite pronouns, and neutral, formal, and conversational Romanian for the related choices.