Spanish to Italian: negative commands change both verb form and pronoun position
Italian singular prohibitions use an infinitive construction
Spanish negative exhortations use subjunctive forms, and the RAE requires object clitics before the negative verb in that construction. Italian second-person singular prohibitions work differently: Treccani describes non followed by an infinitive, illustrating non fare questo. A Spanish instruction telling one person not to do something therefore need not retain a finite-looking target verb.
The Italian infinitive in this construction still addresses someone and prohibits an action. It is not merely a dictionary heading or a statement that the action is unfinished. Translating a Spanish prohibition by adding non to any familiar affirmative imperative would miss the specific singular pattern described by the reference.
The plural does not follow that same replacement rule
Treccani contrasts the singular pattern with non fate questo for second-person plural, whose verb form matches the corresponding affirmative imperative. The recipient group matters: an instruction to one person and an instruction to several people cannot be generated by applying the same singular infinitive recipe to both.
Spanish also distinguishes the addressee through its chosen pronoun and verb construction, including usted and ustedes conventions. Interpret how many people the source addresses and the relationship expressed toward them before selecting the Italian address form. The simple singular/plural examples here describe the cited second-person patterns, not every formal-address construction.
An object clitic can occupy either side in the Italian negative pattern
The Italian reference accepts both non lo fare and non farlo in current usage. These alternatives preserve the same prohibition and object reference while changing the pronoun’s position and attachment. A Spanish negative instruction with a pre-verbal clitic can consequently correspond to an Italian attached form without reversing the instruction or changing the object.
The RAE’s Spanish rule is not the same freedom: negative subjunctive exhortations require the clitic before the verb. Similar-looking Spanish and Italian pronouns should therefore not encourage a blanket rule to keep their position identical. First recover what the pronoun refers to, then use a position licensed by the target construction.
A shorter attached form still contains the object
In a Spanish message telling someone not to touch an already mentioned item, the object may appear only as a clitic. An Italian result with the clitic attached remains capable of referring to that same item. Omitting the pronoun because the target verb looks complete would lose the reference, while adding a new noun could wrongly specify an item not established in the source.
Conversely, a general prohibition and a prohibition concerning one particular object have different reach. The Spanish pronoun can be the only clue that the instruction concerns something already discussed. Preserve that connection even when the Italian construction packages the verb and clitic into one written word.
For this direction, keep three decisions separate: the action being prohibited, the intended recipient or recipients and the object identified by any clitic. Spanish and Italian both express negative instructions, but their singular verb patterns and pronoun placement do not coincide. Different target spelling can preserve the same practical instruction when those three relationships remain intact.
Language references