How do you say don't in French commands?

Put ne before the imperative and pas after it: ne ferme pas la porte, don't close the door. Ne becomes n' in front of a vowel: n'attends pas.

Why is it ne te lève pas and not ne lève-toi pas?

The affirmative imperative is the only place where French puts object and reflexive pronouns after the verb. As soon as you negate the command, the pronoun returns to its normal position in front of the verb, and toi goes back to being te.

Where do object pronouns go in a negative command?

Between ne and the verb, in the usual order: me, te, nous, vous, se first, then le, la, les, then lui, leur, then y, then en. So ne le lui dis pas, don't tell him, and ne leur en parle pas, don't talk to them about it.

What does ne pas fumer mean and why is there no imperative?

It means no smoking. Public notices address nobody in particular, so French uses ne pas plus an infinitive rather than a command: ne pas déranger, do not disturb. Both negative words sit in front of the infinitive as a block.

Is it acceptable to drop the ne?

In speech, yes, and it's very common: touche pas, fais pas ça, t'inquiète pas. In writing, in exams and in anything formal, keep the ne.

French grammar · Intermediate

The French Negative Imperative: Ne … Pas and Where the Pronouns Go

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

To tell someone not to do something, wrap ne … pas around the imperative form: ne parle pas, ne partons pas, n'attendez pas. The one thing that changes is the pronouns, which move back in front of the verb and lose their hyphens.

Ne t'inquiète pas, tout va bien.

Don't worry, everything's fine.

What it is

The negative imperative is the affirmative one with a negation built around it. Because ne has to come first and pas has to come straight after the verb, any pronoun in the sentence gets pushed back into its ordinary pre-verb position, which is why the negative looks so different from the affirmative.

Donne-le-moi. → Ne me le donne pas. — Give it to me. → Don't give it to me.

How to spot it

Read the sentence for its skeleton: ne, then any pronouns, then the verb, then pas. Everything else slots into that frame.

Ne ferme pas la fenêtre. — Don't close the window.
N'oublions pas les clés. — Let's not forget the keys.
Ne vous levez pas. — Don't get up.
Ne me le dis pas. — Don't tell me.

Ne shortens to n' before a vowel or mute h: n'aie pas peur, n'hésitez pas.

Negative Imperative Quick Reference

Affirmative and negative side by side

Person	Affirmative	Negative	English
tu	Parle plus fort.	Ne parle pas si fort.	Don't talk so loudly.
nous	Attendons ici.	N'attendons pas ici.	Let's not wait here.
vous	Signez le formulaire.	Ne signez pas le formulaire.	Don't sign the form.
tu, reflexive	Assieds-toi.	Ne t'assieds pas.	Don't sit down.
vous, reflexive	Dépêchez-vous.	Ne vous dépêchez pas.	Don't rush.
tu, two pronouns	Dis-le-lui.	Ne le lui dis pas.	Don't tell him.
tu, irregular	Sois patient.	Ne sois pas impatient.	Don't be impatient.

Common Negative Imperative Examples in French

The negative imperative across the situations it actually appears in:

Reassurance

Ne t'inquiète pas.: Don't worry.
N'aie pas peur, ce n'est rien.: Don't be afraid, it's nothing.
Ne vous en faites pas.: Don't fret about it.
Ne sois pas triste.: Don't be sad.

This is where beginners meet the negative imperative first, and all four of these are fixed enough to learn as blocks.

Instructions and Warnings

Ne touchez pas à ça.: Don't touch that.
Ne traverse pas sans regarder.: Don't cross without looking.
N'ouvre pas la porte.: Don't open the door.
Ne mettez pas les coudes sur la table.: Don't put your elbows on the table.

Toucher takes à when it means to lay a finger on something: ne touche pas à mon téléphone.

Let's Not

Ne partons pas tout de suite.: Let's not leave right away.
N'exagérons pas.: Let's not overdo it.
Ne nous disputons pas pour ça.: Let's not argue about that.
Ne perdons pas de temps.: Let's not waste time.

The nous form covers English let's not, and after a negative the partitive becomes de: ne perdons pas de temps.

With Object Pronouns

Ne le regarde pas.: Don't look at him.
Ne leur en parle pas.: Don't talk to them about it.
N'y pense plus.: Don't think about it any more.
Ne me les rends pas maintenant.: Don't give them back to me now.

Pronouns keep their ordinary order here, the same order they take in any negative sentence.

How the Negative Imperative Works

The verb form is unchanged. Everything difficult about this structure is about position.

The Verb Form Is the Same as the Affirmative

You don't build a new form to negate a command. Take the imperative you already know and put ne in front of it and pas after it. Verbs in -er still have no final s in the tu form.

Ne regarde pas derrière toi.

Don't look behind you.

Same verb, new frame.

Pas Sits Immediately After the Verb

Nothing separates the verb from pas except, in compound structures, an infinitive. Any noun object comes after pas, which is the reverse of what happens with pronouns.

Ne prends pas la voiture.

Don't take the car.

verb + pas + noun.

Pronouns Go Back in Front of the Verb

The affirmative imperative is the only structure in French that puts object pronouns after the verb. Negate it and that exception disappears, so the pronouns return to their normal slot between ne and the verb, with no hyphens.

Ne nous le répète pas.

Don't repeat it to us.

ne + pronouns + verb + pas.

Moi and Toi Revert to Me and Te

The stressed forms moi and toi only appear in the affirmative, where they're attached with a hyphen. In the negative you need the ordinary unstressed pronouns me and te.

Ne te sers pas de ça.

Don't use that.

Donne-moi → ne me donne pas.

Être and Avoir Keep Their Subjunctive Forms

Four verbs take their imperative from the subjunctive rather than the present: être, avoir, savoir and vouloir. Two of them are negated constantly, ne sois pas and n'aie pas; sachez and veuillez belong to formal affirmative requests and are hardly ever negated.

Ne soyez pas en retard.

Don't be late.

sois, aie, sache, veuille.

Common Mistakes with Negative Imperative

Incorrect: Ne lève-toi pas. — Don't get up.

Correct: Ne te lève pas. — Don't get up.

The hyphenated pronoun belongs to the affirmative only. Under negation the reflexive pronoun goes back in front of the verb and reverts from toi to te.

Incorrect: Ne donne-le-moi pas. — Don't give it to me.

Correct: Ne me le donne pas. — Don't give it to me.

Both the position and the order of the pronouns change. In front of the verb, the indirect pronoun me comes before the direct pronoun le, which is the opposite of the affirmative sequence.

Incorrect: Ne parles pas si vite. — Don't talk so fast.

Correct: Ne parle pas si vite. — Don't talk so fast.

The tu imperative of an -er verb drops the s of the present tense, and negating it changes nothing about that. Tu parles is a statement; parle is a command.

Incorrect: N'aies pas peur. — Don't be afraid.

Correct: N'aie pas peur. — Don't be afraid.

Avoir takes its imperative from the subjunctive, where the tu form is aies, but the imperative drops that s: aie, ayons, ayez. The same happens with sache and veuille.

The Negative Imperative in Full

The imperative exists in three persons only, so half of a conjugation table is empty by design. That gap is itself worth seeing: there is no way to give an order to je, il or ils.

Regular Verbs, All Three Persons

The tu form of an -er verb has no s. The -ir and -re forms keep the s they have in the present tense.

Pronoun	parler	finir	attendre
je / j'	—	—	—
tu	ne parle pas	ne finis pas	n'attends pas
il / elle / on	—	—	—
nous	ne parlons pas	ne finissons pas	n'attendons pas
vous	ne parlez pas	ne finissez pas	n'attendez pas
ils / elles	—	—	—

For a third person instruction French uses the subjunctive with que instead: qu'il ne parte pas, don't let him leave.

The Four Irregular Imperatives

These forms come from the subjunctive rather than the present indicative, which is why they look nothing like the verbs they belong to.

Pronoun	être	avoir	savoir	aller
tu	ne sois pas	n'aie pas	ne sache pas	ne va pas
nous	ne soyons pas	n'ayons pas	ne sachons pas	n'allons pas
vous	ne soyez pas	n'ayez pas	ne sachez pas	n'allez pas

Aller is regular here; its only oddity is the affirmative vas-y, which takes an s that ne va pas does not. The negated forms of savoir are grammatical but rare, since sachez normally introduces information rather than forbidding it.

Reflexives and Object Pronouns

Compare the two columns for each row. Negating the command moves every pronoun from after the verb to before it and strips the hyphens.

Pronoun	affirmative	negative
tu, se lever	lève-toi	ne te lève pas
nous, se lever	levons-nous	ne nous levons pas
vous, se lever	levez-vous	ne vous levez pas
tu, le + lui	donne-le-lui	ne le lui donne pas
tu, en	prends-en	n'en prends pas
tu, y	vas-y	n'y va pas

Vas-y and prends-en add an s before y and en for pronunciation. That s vanishes in the negative because nothing follows the verb.

Other Ways French Says Don't

The ne … pas imperative is the neutral option. Three variants cover instructions, stronger prohibitions, and casual speech.

Ne pas plus an infinitive, for impersonal instructions

Signs, recipes and manuals don't address anyone in particular, so they use an infinitive with both negative words in front of it. This is the form you'll read far more often than you'll say it.

Ne pas fumer.: No smoking.
Ne pas dépasser la dose prescrite.: Do not exceed the prescribed dose.
Ne pas se pencher au dehors.: Do not lean out of the window.

Note the order: ne pas comes as a block before the infinitive, and a reflexive pronoun follows it.

Stronger and narrower negatives

Any negative pair can replace ne … pas, and the second element keeps its usual position. Rien and plus stay next to the verb; personne and jamais behave the same way in a simple tense.

Ne dis rien.: Don't say anything.
Ne bougez plus !: Don't move!
N'oublie jamais ça.: Never forget that.
Ne parle à personne de cette histoire.: Don't talk to anyone about this.

Ne … plus is the standard way to say stop doing something you're already doing: ne pleure plus.

What people actually say

In relaxed speech the ne disappears completely, leaving pas to carry the negation on its own. It's normal in conversation and out of place in writing.

Touche pas !: Don't touch!
T'inquiète pas.: Don't worry.
Fais pas ça.: Don't do that.

T'inquiète pas is a contraction of ne t'inquiète pas, and it often gets shortened further to just t'inquiète.

Negative Imperative FAQs

How do you say don't in French commands?: Put ne before the imperative and pas after it: ne ferme pas la porte, don't close the door. Ne becomes n' in front of a vowel: n'attends pas.
Why is it ne te lève pas and not ne lève-toi pas?: The affirmative imperative is the only place where French puts object and reflexive pronouns after the verb. As soon as you negate the command, the pronoun returns to its normal position in front of the verb, and toi goes back to being te.
Where do object pronouns go in a negative command?: Between ne and the verb, in the usual order: me, te, nous, vous, se first, then le, la, les, then lui, leur, then y, then en. So ne le lui dis pas, don't tell him, and ne leur en parle pas, don't talk to them about it.
What does ne pas fumer mean and why is there no imperative?: It means no smoking. Public notices address nobody in particular, so French uses ne pas plus an infinitive rather than a command: ne pas déranger, do not disturb. Both negative words sit in front of the infinitive as a block.
Is it acceptable to drop the ne?: In speech, yes, and it's very common: touche pas, fais pas ça, t'inquiète pas. In writing, in exams and in anything formal, keep the ne.