Negation | moneportfolionora

Negation

Ne pas

To make a simple negative statement, question, or command in French, ne…pas is placed around the verb.

Ex. Je n’aime pas beaucoup ce film français.

In simple tenses, ne precedes the verb and pas follows it.

Ex. Je n’aime pas ce film.

In compound tenses, ne precedes the auxiliary verb and pas follows it.

Ex. Elle n’a pas vu le film.

When using inversion, ne precedes the inverted subject-verb construction and pas follows it.

Ex. N’es-tu pas allé au cinema?

In a command (imperative form), ne precedes the verb and pas follows it.

Ex. N’allez pas au cinema!

With a negative infinitive, ne pas is placed between the main verb and the infinitive.

Ex. Il préfère ne pas aller au cinema.

A negative statement, question, etc. can be reinforced, or made stronger, by adding du tout to the ne…pas expression.

Ex. Je n’ai pas du tout envie de regarder ce jeu télévisé.

Pas du tout can also be used alone as a negative answer to a question.

A negative statement, question, etc. can be qualified or made more precise, by adding encore to ne..pas.

Ex. Je n’ai pas encore vu ce film.

Note: Indefinite articles (un/une/des) that follow negative expressions are replaced by de.

Ex. Il y a des cinemas dans ce petit village.

Other negation expressions:

ne…jamais: never

ne…plus: no longer

ne…personne: no one

ne…rien: nothing

ne…ni..ni: neither

ne…aucun: not any

The expression ne…que, which means only, is often included with negative expressions, although technically it only limits the verb, rather than negates it. The second part of this expression (que) always directly precedes the word it modifies.

Ex. Il n’a vu que deux films français dans sa vie.

Ne…jamais

Ne … jamais negates the adverbs souvent (often), quelquefois (sometimes), parfois (occasionally), toujours (always), and de temps en temps (from time to time). It functions the same way as ne…pas. It can be used to answer a question and can also be used alone in a positive context to mean ever.

Ex. Elle ne regarde jamais les informations.

Ne…plus

Ne…plus is used to indicate a negative change in a situation, and it is sometimes used to negate the adverbs encore and toujours when they mean still.

Ex. Je ne regarde plus la télé.

Ne…personne/ ne…rien

When used as a subject, both parts of the negative expressions precede the verb and the verb is always in the singular.

Ex. Personne n’aime la télé-réalité.

When used as a direct object, ne precedes the verb and personne/rien follows it.

If the verb is in a compound tense (auxiliary+past participle of main verb), the placement of personne and rien used as direct objects is not the same. Rien precedes the past participle.

Ex. Elle n’a rien vu.

When used as the object of a preposition, both personne and rien follow the preposition.

Ex. Elle n’est allée au cinema avec personne.

Note: As in the above example, if personne or rien is modified by an adjective, the adjective is always masculine and must be preceded by de (d’).

Both personne and rien can be used alone as negative answers.

Ne…ni…ni

Ne…ni…ni is used to oppose two people, things, or ideas. Ne precedes the verb, as usual, but ni… ni directly precede the words they modify. Partitive and indefinite articles are dropped in this construction, but definite articles remain.

Ex. Elle n’aime regarder ni la télé ni les films.

Note: When ne..ni..ni is negating the subject rather than the object in a sentence.

Ex. Ni ma mere ni mon pere n’aiment les films d’horreur.

Ne…aucun

This negative expression can function in various ways in a sentence.

As a subject pronoun, aucun takes the gender of the noun it replaces and is followed by a singular verb.

Ex. Aucune de ces trois séries n’est bonne.

As an adjective, aucun agrees in gender with the noun it modifies. The adjective and noun are always singular.

Ex. Cet acteur n’a aucun talent.