don't

See also: dont and dönt

Contents

English

Etymology

From do +‎ -n't.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dəʊnt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /doʊnt/, [doʊ̯(ʔ)t̚]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊnt

Verb

don't

1. do not (negative auxiliary)
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. […]”

   • The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me", Zenyatta Mondatta, A&M Records:

     Don't Stand, Don't stand so, Don't stand so close to me.

2. (nonstandard) does not
   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 2, in Little Women:

     My mother knows old Mr. Laurence, but says he’s very proud and don’t like to mix with his neighbors.

   • 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records:

     I sure hope the road don’t come to own me.

   • 2000, Eminem (music), “Stan”, in The Marshall Mathers LP:

     My girlfriend's jealous 'cause I talk about you twenty-four seven / But she don't know you like I know you, Slim, no one does / She don't know what it was like for people like us growing up / You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose

   • 2012, Justin Bieber (music), “She Don't Like the Lights”, in Believe:

     She don't like the flash, wanna keep us in the dark / She don't like the fame, baby when we're miles apart

   • 2013, Tim McGraw (music), “Highway Don't Care”, in Two Lanes of Freedom:

     The highway don't care

3. (African American Vernacular) Used before an emphatic negative subject.

   Don’t nobody care.

Translations

do not

• Albanian: mos (sq)
• Arabic: لَا‎ (ar) (lā) (+ jussive of the verb)
• Belarusian: не (be) (ne)
• Bulgarian: не (bg) (ne)
• Burmese: မ (my) (ma.) verb နဲ့ (my) (nai.)
• Catalan: no (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 唔好 (m⁴ hou²)

  Mandarin: 不要 (zh) (bùyào), 別 (zh), 别 (zh) (bié), 別介, 别介 (biéjiè), 不 (zh) (bù)

• Czech: ne- (cs)
• Dutch: imperative + niet (nl), niet (nl) + infinitive
• Esperanto: ne (eo) + jussive
• Finnish: älä (fi) sg, älkää (fi) pl
• French: ne... verb ...pas
• Georgian: არ (ar), არ გააკეთო (ar gaaḳeto), ნუ (nu)
• German: imperative + nicht (de), nicht (de) + infinitive
• Hebrew: אל‎ (he) (al) (+ future third person verb of appropriate gender and number)
• Hindi: न (hi) (na), (less polite) मत (hi) (mat)
• Hungarian: ne (hu)
• Icelandic: ekki (is) + infinitive
• Ido: ne (io)
• Irish: ná
• Italian: non (it)
• Japanese: terminal + な (ja) (na), (polite) ...ないでください (...naide kudasai)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can

• Korean: (-지 (ji) +) 말다 (ko) (malda)
• Lao: ຢ່າ (yā)
• Latin: noli + infinitive (singular), nolite + infinitive (plural)
• Lü: ᦊᦱᧈ (jaa²)
• Macedonian: не (ne)
• Malay: jangan
• Persian: نکن‎ (fa) (nakon)
• Polish: nie (pl)
• Portuguese: não (pt)
• Russian: не (ru) (ne)
• Scots: dinnae
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: немој

  Roman: nemoj

• Slovak: ne
• Slovene: ne (sl)
• Spanish: no (es)
• Swedish: verb ...inte (sv)
• Tagalog: huwag (tl)
• Thai: อย่า (th) (yàa)...
• Ukrainian: не (uk) (ne)
• Urdu: نـ‎ (na-), (less polite) مت‎ (mat)
• Vietnamese: đừng (vi)
• Welsh: na
• Zulu: musa sg, musani pl, kahle (zu) sg, kahleni pl

Interjection

don't

1. Stop!, Don't touch that!

Translations

interjection

• Maori: kauaka, kauraka

Noun

don't (plural don'ts)

1. Something that must not be done (usually in the phrase dos and don'ts).

Antonyms

• do

Derived terms

• dos and don'ts

See also

• doesn't

References