Lombard/Negation

In modern Lombard the negation is always post-verbal (the only exceptions are the Bregaglia valley, some areas of Trentino and, in the recent past, some valleys of Canton Ticino and Ossola). This means that the negative particle must be placed always after the verb.
 * es.: mì parli minga = I don’t speak.

Negative forms
Negative sentences are those constructed with the negating adverb minga- or its dialectal variants or "nò". The construction of these sentences has been described in the module about the construction of the sentence while on the page Lombard/Adverbs#Negating adverbs are found the dialectal variants of the negating adverbs

Negative sentences are also those constructed with indefinite pronouns nagot or nothing - or its dialectal variants thereof - (nothing) and nissun - or dialect variants thereof - (no one, nobody).

For variants of negating adverbs of negation and of negating indefinite pronouns, go to see the Wiktionary in Lombard.

Use of the negative form

 * As will be described in the module about sentence construction, except for rare exceptions, negative particles (“minga” and “nò”) always occur after the verb. In compound tenses, they are placed between the auxiliary and the past participle (except for the negating pronouns i.e. nissun and negott, which are placed  after'' the past participle).
 * hoo minga podud, not hoo podud minga (in English I could not).
 * l'hoo mai sentud, not l'hoo sentud mai (in English I have never seen it).

Preverbal negative form
Cases of pre-verbal negation can be found in ancient literature and in some Alpine dialects.
 * mi no l'hoo mai vist

Adjectives in negative form
The particle minga can also be used, if placed before the adjective, to make it negative.


 * bell → minga bell (in English: beautiful → not beautiful)