How do you say "no!" (to stop someone)?


Suppose someone is about to do/say something dangerous/inappropriate. And I
want to stop them _immediately_. In English and Spanish I say "no!" to them.
It is _an order to stop_ , short form of "don't do it/that". How can I do that
in Japanese?

I do not think you can say いいえ in this case.

To stop a child from doing something, some book says to say だめ！. But I find it
lacking, meaning "it is wrong/problematic to do that" and leaving the
connection to "(so don't do it)" to the listener. I want a short direct,
clear, unambiguous order. :-)

とまれ！[止まれ?] sounds to me more related to movement, less general. Also, だめ！ and
"no!" are simpler for a child (to understand/process, and for me to think and
say).

Would the answer depend on context or listener
(adult/toddler/student/teammate)?




When I lived in Japan, I heard parents use some of the following:

Like you suggested, `だめ！` was among the first. Sometimes followed by `危ないから！`
or `危ないよ！`

I also heard `やめて！` pretty often.

I guess none of those really carry the "What you are doing is wrong" nuance,
but neither does "NO STOP!" in English. If you have to express the idea that a
child should not do something, I would suggest `それをやってはいけないよ` or maybe
`やっちゃダメだよ` or something similar.




When I lived in Japan, I heard parents use some of the following:

Like you suggested, `だめ！` was among the first. Sometimes followed by `危ないから！`
or `危ないよ！`

I also heard `やめて！` pretty often.

I guess none of those really carry the "What you are doing is wrong" nuance,
but neither does "NO STOP!" in English. If you have to express the idea that a
child should not do something, I would suggest `それをやってはいけないよ` or maybe
`やっちゃダメだよ` or something similar.

