How to Say No in Portuguese: The Beginner's Guide to Não

So you want to learn how to say no in Portuguese. Seems simple enough, right?

The word is não. Done.

Except... it's not that simple. Because Portuguese does this thing where you can't just say "não" by itself without sounding like kind of a jerk. And there's this whole double negative situation that's going to mess with your English-speaking brain. And the pronunciation has this nasal vowel that doesn't exist in English.

Let's sort this out.

The Basic Rule: Não Goes Before the Verb

Here's the thing about Portuguese negation—the core grammar is actually pretty straightforward. You take the word "não" and stick it before the verb. That's it.

Eu gosto de café. (I like coffee.) Eu não gosto de café. (I don't like coffee.)

Ela está em casa. (She is at home.) Ela não está em casa. (She is not at home.)

Nós sabemos a resposta. (We know the answer.) Nós não sabemos a resposta. (We don't know the answer.)

See? The sentence stays exactly the same, you just add "não" before the verb. No weird conjugation changes, no auxiliary verbs like English's "do/does/don't/doesn't" system. Just... não + verb.

If you're a beginner just starting your Portuguese learning journey, this is the one rule you need to remember. Everything else builds on top of it.

Now For the Weird Part: Double Negatives Are Correct

Okay, here's where Portuguese throws a curveball at English speakers.

In English, we learned that double negatives are wrong. "I don't know nothing" = bad grammar. Your teacher corrected you. You internalized this.

Portuguese doesn't care. In Portuguese, double negatives don't cancel each other out—they reinforce each other. And in many cases, they're actually required.

Let me show you what I mean.

The Negative Words That Need Não

Portuguese has a bunch of negative words:

When these words come after the verb, you need to put "não" before the verb too. It's mandatory.

Eu não vi nada. (I didn't see anything.) Literally: "I didn't see nothing."

Não tem ninguém lá fora. (There's no one out there.) Literally: "There doesn't have nobody out there."

Eu não tenho nenhuma pergunta. (I don't have any questions.) Literally: "I don't have no questions."

If you tried to say "Eu vi nada" without the "não," it would sound weird and incomplete to a native speaker. Like you started a sentence and forgot how to finish it.

When You Don't Need the Double

Here's the exception: when the negative word comes before the verb, you don't need "não."

Ninguém veio à festa. (Nobody came to the party.) Nada aconteceu. (Nothing happened.)

See how "ninguém" and "nada" are at the front? No "não" needed. The negative word is already doing the job.

This is actually pretty logical once you get used to it. The question is just: where's the negative word in relation to the verb?

Brazilian Portuguese Takes It Further: Triple Negatives

If you thought double negatives were fun, wait until you hear about what Brazilians do.

In Brazilian Portuguese, you can add another "não" at the end of a sentence for emphasis. Triple negation.

Eu não vi ninguém, não. (I really didn't see anybody.) Emanuel não vai comprar nada, não. (Emanuel definitely won't buy anything.)

This is super common in spoken Brazilian Portuguese. It's emphatic—like adding "at all" or "whatsoever" in English. You'll hear it constantly in Brazilian TV shows and movies.

There's also a regional thing in Brazil where some people put "não" after the verb instead of before:

Standard: Não vi. (I didn't see it.) Regional variation: Vi não. (I didn't see it.) Extra emphatic: Não vi, não. (I didn't see it, no way.)

This is more informal and varies by region, but you'll definitely encounter it.

How to Actually Pronounce Não

Let's talk about that pronunciation, because this trips up a lot of English speakers.

"Não" has a nasal vowel. The IPA transcription is nɐ̃w̃, which probably means nothing to you. Here's what matters:

The air goes through your mouth AND your nose at the same time.

Think about it like this: say "now" in English. Now try saying it while letting air flow through your nose simultaneously, and cut off the final sound right as it starts to nasalize. It's somewhere between "nown" and "nowm"—but nasal.

The tilde (~) over the "a" in Portuguese always indicates this nasal quality. You'll see it in words like:

The nasal thing actually matters for meaning. "Pau" (wood) and "pão" (bread) differ only in whether that vowel is nasal. Get it wrong and you're asking for lumber at the bakery.

European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese sound pretty similar on this particular word, though Brazilians tend to pronounce vowels more openly overall.

Why Just Saying "Não" Can Sound Rude

Here's something the grammar guides often skip: in Portuguese, just answering "não" by itself can come across as blunt or even rude. Like you're annoyed.

Brazilians especially tend to repeat the verb when answering questions negatively:

Q: Você gosta de café? (Do you like coffee?) A: Não gosto. (No, I don't.) — Much more natural than just "Não"

Or they soften it with "obrigado/obrigada" (thank you):

Não, obrigado. (No, thank you.) — Said by men Não, obrigada. (No, thank you.) — Said by women

(Yeah, "thank you" has a masculine and feminine form in Portuguese. The noun agrees with the speaker's gender, not the person you're thanking.)

Other polite ways to say no:

Em and Na: Prepositions You'll See With Negation

Quick grammar note for beginners: you'll often see "não" combined with prepositions like "em" (in/on) and "na" (em + a = in the).

Ela não está em casa. (She is not at home.) Não tenho interesse na proposta. (I don't have interest in the proposal.)

The contraction "na" = em + a (in + the, feminine). Portuguese loves contractions—the preposition merges with the article. You'll also see "no" (em + o = in + the, masculine) and "nos" (em + os = in + the, plural masculine).

This isn't specific to negation, but you'll encounter these contractions constantly in negative sentences since you're often talking about where things aren't or what you're not interested in.

The Negative Expressions That Make You Sound Native

Beyond just "não," there are some phrases that'll make your Portuguese sound more natural:

Nem pensar! (No way! / Don't even think about it!) De jeito nenhum! (Absolutely not! / No way!) Nunca! (Never!) Nunca mais! (Never again!) Que nada! (No way! / As if!) — Very Brazilian

And here's a cultural thing: Portuguese speakers sometimes use negative constructions to express positive feelings. It's a humility thing.

Não está nada mal. (It's not bad at all.) — Meaning: It's actually pretty good.Não cozinhas nada mal. (You don't cook badly at all.) — Meaning: You're a good cook.

This understatement is common, especially in European Portuguese. If someone says your work "não está mal," they might actually be impressed—they're just being modest about expressing it.

European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese: The Differences

The core negation rules are the same, but there are some usage differences worth knowing:

Tag questions: Brazilians love ending sentences with "não é?" (isn't it?) as a tag question. European Portuguese speakers might use "verdade?" or "certo?" instead.

Emphasis patterns: Brazilian Portuguese uses that triple negative thing more freely. European Portuguese tends to be slightly more conservative with extra emphasis.

Vowel sounds: European Portuguese speakers "swallow" their vowels more—the language has more vowel reduction. Brazilian Portuguese is generally clearer to understand for beginners because the vowels are more open and distinct.

If you're just starting out, don't stress too much about this. The fundamentals are the same. You'll naturally pick up the regional differences as you consume more content from whichever variety you're focusing on.

How This Fits Into Your Learning

Negation shows up constantly in Portuguese—probably more than you realize until you start looking for it. Every time someone declines an offer, disagrees with something, describes what they don't do, or explains what didn't happen, they're using these patterns.

The grammar itself isn't complicated. Não before the verb, double negatives when other negative words come after, appropriate softening when being polite. You can memorize these rules in an afternoon.

The hard part is making it automatic. Getting to where you don't have to think "okay, nada comes after the verb, so I need não before it" every single time. That takes exposure and practice—hearing and reading these patterns over and over in real Portuguese until they become natural.

This is where learning from actual Portuguese content helps a lot. Textbooks give you clean example sentences, but real conversations show you how native speakers actually use negation—the emphasis, the regional variations, the softening phrases, all of it. Understanding how spaced repetition works can help you retain these patterns long-term.

If you want to practice Portuguese negation with real content—shows, YouTube videos, articles—Migaku makes that process way more efficient. The browser extension lets you hover over words for instant definitions, and when you encounter a sentence like "Eu não quero nada" in an actual show, you can save it directly to your flashcard deck with one click.

The pronunciation help is useful here too. Portuguese nasal vowels are hard to get right just from reading—you need to hear them repeatedly in context. Being able to look up any word while watching something and immediately hear how a native says it helps a lot more than reading phonetic transcriptions.

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