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A negative verb is a type of auxiliary with help of which negative forms of verbs are formed. The action itself has no personal endings, while the negative verb takes the inflection. The English auxiliary "don't" or "doesn't" combined with a pronoun performs a similar function: one says "we don't make", where "make" has no inflection, and "we don't" is essentially a negative verb, which indicates the person "we" (contrast "he doesn't" with a different person).

Contents 1 Negative Verb in Various Languages 1.1 Finnish 1.2 Estonian 1.3 Inari Sami 1.4 Northern Sami

The negative verb is typical of the Uralic languages. Uralic languages inflect by person, thus one word, the negative verb corresponds to e.g. "I don't" (Finnish en) or "doesn't" (ei).

The negative verb is conjugated in moods and person forms in Finnish. In the present tense, the form of the main verb is just the stem of the present form without a personal ending, e.g. lähden – en lähde ’I leave’ – ’I do not leave’, menisit – et menisi ’you would go’ – ’you would not go’, syönee – ei syöne ’he/she may eat’ – ’he/she may not eat’, ottakaamme – älkäämme ottako ’let us take’ – ’let us not take’. In the imperfect tense, the form of the main verb is the past participle, e.g. otin – en ottanut ’I took’ – ’I did not take’, otimme – emme ottaneet ’we took’ – ’we did not take’.

Indicative, conditional, and potential

Person	Singular	Plural
1.	en	emme
2.	et	ette
3.	ei	eivät

Imperative

Person	Singular	Plural
1.	-	älkäämme
2.	älä	älkää
3.	älköön	älkööt

Although the negative verb is conjugated for mood and person in Estonian, the indicative, conditional and potential no longer have distintictive forms for each person (cf. the Finnish negative verb above).

Indicative, conditional, and modus obliquus

Person	Singular	Plural
1.	ei	ei
2.	ei	ei
3.	ei	ei

Imperative

Person	Singular	Plural
1.	-	ärgem
2.	ära	ärge
3.	ärgu	ärgu

The negative verb is conjugated in moods and person forms in Inari Sami.

Indicative, conditional, and potential mood

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1.	jie´m	eän	ep
2.	jie´h	eppee	eppeđ
3.	ij	eä´vá	eä

Imperative

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1.	eällum	eäl´loon	eällup
2.	ele	ellee	elleđ
3.	eä´lus	eällus	eällus

The negative verb is conjugated in moods and person forms in Northern Sami.

Indicative, conditional, and potential mood

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1.	in	ean	eat
2.	it	eahppi	ehpet
3.	ii	eaba	eai

Imperative

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1.	allon	allu	allot
2.	ale	alli	allet
3.	allos	alloska	alloset