How to Make Marathi Sentences Negative: नाही, नको, नका

Picture this. Someone offers you food at a Maharashtrian home — a second helping of rice, a piece of sweet, another cup of tea. You're full. You want to decline politely. You say: "मला नाही." The host's expression shifts, just slightly. You've said something grammatically odd, and mildly cold. What you meant was नको. What you said was "I am not" — without a verb, without a complete thought, without the warmth that नको carries. The difference between the two words is a few milliseconds of speaking time, but the social gap is real.

Marathi has three core negators, and each one does a distinct job. Using the wrong one doesn't always break comprehension, but it does mark you as someone who hasn't quite understood the system yet.

नाही (nāhī) — The All-Purpose Statement Negator

नाही [naːɦiː] is the workhorse. It negates statements — present, past, and future — and it sits after the verb. If English uses "not" or "don't / doesn't / didn't," Marathi usually reaches for नाही.

The basic placement rule:

मी येतो. (Mī yeto.) [miː jeːtoː] — "I come / I'm coming." मी येत नाही. (Mī yet nāhī.) [miː jeːt naːɦiː] — "I'm not coming."

In the present tense, the main verb takes its participial -त (-t) form, and नाही follows. Compare:

ती दूध पिते. (Tī dūdh pite.) [tiː duːdʱ piteː] — "She drinks milk." ती दूध पित नाही. (Tī dūdh pit nāhī.) [tiː duːdʱ pit naːɦiː] — "She doesn't drink milk."

ते काम करतात. (Te kām kartāt.) [teː kaːm kərtaːt] — "They work." ते काम करत नाहीत. (Te kām karat nāhīt.) [teː kaːm kərət naːɦiːt] — "They don't work."

Notice that last example: नाहीत, not नाही. This is the inflected plural form. नाही changes shape depending on who you're talking about.

Conjugation: How नाही Inflects

नाही isn't a frozen particle — it inflects for person and number. Hindi's नहीं (nahin) stays the same regardless of subject. Marathi's नाही does not. This is one of the most common early mistakes: treating नाही like an invariable word.

Subject	Negative form	Romanization	IPA	Example
मी (I), तो/ती/ते (he/she/it), general	नाही	nāhī	[naːɦiː]	मी येत नाही — I'm not coming
तू (you, informal)	नाहीस	nāhīs	[naːɦiːs]	तू येत नाहीस — you're not coming
तुम्ही (you, polite) / ते (they)	नाहीत	nāhīt	[naːɦiːt]	ते येत नाहीत — they're not coming
आम्ही (we)	नाही	nāhī	[naːɦiː]	आम्ही येत नाही — we're not coming

The inflection is modest compared to full verb conjugation, but it matters. If you say मी येत नाहीस, you've combined the first-person subject with the second-person negator, and the mismatch is noticeable.

Negating the Past Tense

In the past tense, नाही follows the completed verb form — it doesn't replace the verb, it follows it:

त्याने आंबा खाल्ला. (Tyāne āmbā khāllā.) [tʲaːneː aːmbaː kʰallaː] — "He ate the mango." त्याने आंबा खाल्ला नाही. (Tyāne āmbā khāllā nāhī.) [tʲaːneː aːmbaː kʰallaː naːɦiː] — "He didn't eat the mango."

The ergative construction stays intact — त्याने, खाल्ला agreeing with the masculine object — and नाही simply appears at the end. The verb doesn't shift into a participial -त form the way it does in present negation. The completed form stays, and नाही closes the sentence.

For intransitive past tense:

ती घरी गेली. (Tī gharī gelī.) [tiː gʱəriː ɡeliː] — "She went home." ती घरी गेली नाही. (Tī gharī gelī nāhī.) [tiː gʱəriː ɡeliː naːɦiː] — "She didn't go home."

Same pattern: the verb holds its form, नाही follows.

Negating "To Be": नाही Replaces आहे

One special case worth knowing. The verb आहे (āhe) [aːɦeː] — "is / are" — doesn't take the present participial form before नाही. नाही simply replaces it outright:

तो विद्यार्थी आहे. (To vidyārthī āhe.) [toː ʋidʲaːrtʰiː aːɦeː] — "He is a student." तो विद्यार्थी नाही. (To vidyārthī nāhī.) [toː ʋidʲaːrtʰiː naːɦiː] — "He is not a student."

मी घरी आहे. (Mī gharī āhe.) [miː gʱəriː aːɦeː] — "I am home." मी घरी नाही. (Mī gharī nāhī.) [miː gʱəriː naːɦiː] — "I am not home."

आहे drops entirely. नाही takes its place. This is cleaner than what you might expect from the present-tense pattern, and it makes negating identity and location statements straightforward.

नको (nako) — "I Don't Want / No Thank You"

नको [nəkoː] is not a synonym of नाही. It occupies a specific emotional and grammatical slot: declining something, expressing that you don't want something, or telling someone to stop.

The host offering food scenario at the start of this post is the clearest example. When someone offers tea:

"चहा घ्या." ("Cahā ghyā.") [tʃəɦaː gʱjaː] — "Have tea." (polite offer)

The right polite decline is:

"नको, धन्यवाद." ("Nako, dhanyavād.") [nəkoː dʱənjaːʋaːd] — "No thank you." / "I don't want it, thank you."

Saying "चहा नाही" (Cahā nāhī.) [tʃəɦaː naːɦiː] would mean something closer to "Tea doesn't exist" or "There is no tea" — a statement of fact rather than a personal refusal. It's not what you mean, and it can land as abrupt or confused.

नको works in two constructions. First, as a standalone refusal — "नको" by itself, as above. Second, following a noun to express that you don't want that specific thing:

मला भात नको. (Malā bhāt nako.) [məlaː bʱaːt nəkoː] — "I don't want rice." (at the table)

मला आता झोप नको. (Malā ātā jhop nako.) [məlaː aːtaː dʒʰop nəkoː] — "I don't want to sleep now."

The structure is: [person]-ला [thing] नको — with ला marking the person as an experiencer, same as in the want/need constructions covered in the postpositions guide.

नको also functions as an informal singular negative command — "don't do that" directed at one person you're close to:

जाऊ नको. (Jāū nako.) [dʒaːuː nəkoː] — "Don't go." (to a friend, child, informal)

रडू नको. (Raḍū nako.) [rəɖuː nəkoː] — "Don't cry."

In this command use, it follows the verb's infinitive/subjunctive form. The distinction from नका (below) is purely register: नको is informal, নका is polite or plural.

नका (nakā) — The Polite Negative Command

नका [nəkaː] is the polite and plural form of the negative command. Where नको says "don't" to someone you're on first-name terms with, नका says "don't" to elders, strangers, a group, or anyone you'd address with तुम्ही (tumhī) rather than तू (tū).

Same construction as नको — the verb's subjunctive form comes first, then नका:

जाऊ नका. (Jāū nakā.) [dʒaːuː nəkaː] — "Don't go." (polite / to a group)

काळजी करू नका. (Kāḷajī karū nakā.) [kaːɭədʒiː kəruː nəkaː] — "Don't worry."

उशीर करू नका. (Uśīr karū nakā.) [uʃiːr kəruː nəkaː] — "Don't be late."

इथे बसू नका. (Ithe basū nakā.) [itʰeː bəsuː nəkaː] — "Don't sit here."

नका appears constantly in everyday speech — on signs, in announcements, from parents addressing children collectively, from bosses, from anyone in a position of mild authority. If you hear a negative command and you don't know whether the speaker is talking to you specifically or a broader group, it's almost certainly नका.

The roof-sentence from the postpositions article — छतावर जाऊ नका (Chatāvar jāū nakā) [tʃʰətaːʋər dʒaːuː nəkaː] — "Don't go on the roof" — uses नका because it's a warning directed at someone with polite distance, not a friend you're teasing.

The Full Negation Picture: A Summary Table

Negator	Form	IPA	When to use	Example
नाही	nāhī	[naːɦiː]	Negating statements (present, past, future)	मी येत नाही — I'm not coming
नाहीस	nāhīs	[naːɦiːs]	Negating statements with तू subject	तू येत नाहीस — you're not coming (informal)
नाहीत	nāhīt	[naːɦiːt]	Negating statements with plural / polite subjects	ते येत नाहीत — they're not coming
नको	nako	[nəkoː]	"I don't want"; informal singular negative command	चहा नको — I don't want tea
नका	nakā	[nəkaː]	Polite/plural negative command	जाऊ नका — don't go (polite)

The Mistakes to Actually Avoid

Two errors show up constantly in beginner Marathi, and both involve confusing these three negators.

Mistake one: नाही as a refusal. When declining an offer — food, drink, a seat, a favor — use नको, not नाही. This is the mistake from the opening paragraph. "चहा नाही" sounds like a factual statement about tea's existence. "नको" or "मला नको" sounds like a person making a choice. Hospitality in Maharashtrian culture involves a careful exchange of offers and acceptances. Using the wrong word here doesn't offend, but it does create a small disconnect.

Mistake two: using नाही in a command. If you want to tell someone not to do something, you cannot just place नाही after the verb. "जा नाही" is not a Marathi command — it's a sentence fragment at best. The negative command requires either नको (informal) or नका (polite/plural), with the verb in its subjunctive form: जाऊ नको / जाऊ नका. English learners trained on Hindi might reach for "मत जाओ" logic and try to adapt it — Marathi simply doesn't work that way.

A related subtlety with नको: In statement contexts like "मला X नको," नको behaves almost adjectivally — it describes the thing as unwanted. You'll sometimes see it treated as a negated form of हवे (desired/wanted). That's a useful mental model: नको is the opposite of हवे (have) [ɦəʋeː], just as "unwanted" is the opposite of "desired." नाही, meanwhile, is about truth value: something is not the case.

Marathi pronunciation and the distinction between closely related sounds — the kinds of differences that make नाही, नाहीस, and नाहीत sound distinct to a native ear — are covered in the Marathi pronunciation guide, which walks through the vowel length distinctions and retroflex sounds that affect how negation forms land in real speech.

The pattern clicks faster when you hear it than when you read it. The Learn Marathi app by Brightwood Apps includes dedicated audio for negative constructions across all three negators, so you can calibrate your ear to the difference between नाही, नको, and नका in natural sentences before you need to produce them in conversation. Available on the App Store.