What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of no (not), es (is), asunto (matter/affair/business) and tuyo (yours).
Which one should you use?
While no es asunto tuyo is a standard way to express this, you might also use no te incumbe to mean "it doesn't concern you," which is a more sophisticated and slightly more polite option. If you want to be very blunt and tell someone to stop meddling, you can use no te metas, which means "don't get involved" or "stay out of it."
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
No es asunto tuyo is an informal way to say "none of your business." For formal situations, you should use No es asunto suyo or the formal phrase No le incumbe. In the latter, le is used to address a single person formally.
How do you pronounce it?
/no es asunto tuʝo/
When do people say it?
In spoken Spanish, if you want to be very aggressive, you might say ¡A ti qué te importa!, which translates to "What do you care!"
Did you know?
- Depending on the country, the phrase no te metas can be accompanied by a gesture of pushing the air away with the hand to physically signal the person to 'back off'.
- While no es asunto tuyo is clear, Spanish speakers often use the phrase no te metas to tell someone to mind their own business. This literally translates to 'do not put yourself in', imagining the conversation as a physical space.
- The word asunto shares the same Latin root as the English word 'assumption'. While it now means 'matter' or 'business' in Spanish, it originally came from a word meaning 'something taken up'.
Examples in context
- No es asunto tuyo.It's none of your business.This is useful for a simple statement of the phrase.Tatoeba #457481 by Shishir, translation #16994 by CK
- ¡No es asunto tuyo!None of your business.This is useful for an emphatic version of the phrase.Tatoeba #2402719 by wallebot, translation #324771 by CK
- Eso no es asunto tuyo.That's none of your business.This is useful for adding a subject to the phrase.Tatoeba #592168 by Leono, translation #514940 by Swift
- 9 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Lucía and Daniel are having a tense argument in a cafe.
- Lucía¿Con quién estabas hablando por teléfono?Who were you talking to on the phone?
- DanielNo es asunto tuyo, Lucía.It is none of your business, Lucía.
- Lucía¡Qué falta de respeto!How disrespectful!
- DanielSolo digo que no es asunto tuyo.I'm just saying it's none of your business.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries asunto, es, no, tuyo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
