Enjoy the rest of the lesson! this). She never travels. English Negation French Negation; I don't speak: Je ne parle pas: I don't write: Je n'écris pas: I don't drive: Je ne conduis pas: I don't love: Je n'aime pas: I don't give: Je ne donne pas: I don't smile: Je ne souris pas: I don't take: Je ne prends pas: he doesn't speak: il ne parle pas: he doesn't write: il n'écrit pas: he doesn't drive: il ne conduit pas: he doesn't love: il n'aime pas All rights reserved. French has several other types of negation where another word is used rather than pas. French negation is the process that turns an affirmative statement (I am happy) into its opposite denial (I am not happy). In such cases, ne retains its place before the conjugated verb: Double negatives are generally not used in French. Je ne peux pas le faire (I can't do
not at all. Elle ne voyage jamais. Il n’écoute jamais. Here’s what else you need to know in order to make a French sentence negative: Je ne vais pas venir demain. anything to do – Double Negative). The French adverb has two parts: ne, which precedes the verb, and pas (or another word or phrase, see below), which follows it. Are you sure you want to remove #bookConfirmation# Multiple negatives, however, are used (although infrequently) only with plus or jamais + another negative: Il ne voit plus personne. Vous ne viendrez pas demain. Je ne le verrai plus jamais. Ne + verb + rien means nothing or anything. Don't forget to bookmark this page. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your French vocabulary. (She says nothing more.) Multiple negatives, however, are used (although infrequently) only with plus or jamais + another negative: Jamais, when used completely alone or with ne and a verb, means “never”; when used with a verb but without ne, jamais means “ever”: In simple tenses, ne precedes the conjugated verb and any object pronouns, and the second part of the negative follows the conjugated verb: In compound tenses, ne precedes the conjugated helping verb and any object pronouns, and the second part of the negative follows the conjugated helping verb (except for personne, nulle part, and aucun [always used in the singular], which follow the past participle when they are used as objects): Que and ni … ni precede the word(s) stressed: Ne or the second part of the negative may be omitted as follows: Ne is often used without pas with pouvoir, savoir, cesser, and oser before an infinitive: Ne is used without pas when il y a (or voici or voilà) … que is followed by a compound tense: The second part of the negative may stand alone: Some common negative expressions include: Previous Ce n'est pas rien. Je ne mangerai pas ce soir. from your Reading List will also remove any Informal negation Ne is often dropped in spoken French. In English negation, the helping verb "do" must be added to most verbs ().This is not the case in French: if there’s … French II: Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Infinitive Preceded by Adjectives and Nouns, Infinitive in Interrogatives Exclamations. French negative sentence using the near future tense. Bouge pas ! In French, you need two negative words, ne (no) and pas (not), to make a sentence negative. We never swim. ne ... personne. ne… pas (2x), ne… jamais, ne… plus, ne… aucun (optional) Ma sœur chante bien. The list below shows the most common French negatives: Rien and personne may be used as subjects of a verb. The links above are only a small sample of our lessons, please open the left side menu to see all links. nothing, not anything. Formal negation There are three negative structures particular to formal French. Ils n’ont rien à faire (they don't have
Note that nebecomes n'in front of a verb starting with a vowel or a mute h. In spoken French, the ne / n'is sometimes dropped. Double negatives are generally not used in French. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Two negatives don't make a positive in French. Elle ne dit plus rien. Nous ne comprenons rien. When the verb is inverted, pas follows the subject pronoun.. 2. But first we need to know what the role of Negation is in the structure of the grammar in French. Negatives express not, never, neither… nor, no longer, no more, no one, nobody, only, and nothing.