A1
ne … pas — the negative in two pieces
How French negation works with ne and pas, where each piece goes, and the other words that replace pas.
French negation has two parts, and the verb sits between them.
Je ne parle pas anglais.
I not speak not English
I don’t speak English.
Il ne travaille pas aujourd’hui.
he not works not today
He isn’t working today.
Ne goes before the verb, pas after it. Nothing else comes between them except object pronouns.
ne becomes n’
Before a vowel or silent h: je n’ai pas, il n’habite pas.
Je n’ai pas le temps.
I not-have not the time
I haven’t got time.
In speech the ne disappears
Spoken French drops ne almost entirely. Je sais pas, c’est pas vrai, j’ai pas faim are what you will hear, and pas alone carries the negative.
Je sais pas.
I know not
I dunno.
Write it in full; expect not to hear it. A learner who cannot recognise the dropped form will miss half of what is said to them.
Other words replace pas
| ne … jamais | never |
| ne … rien | nothing |
| ne … personne | nobody |
| ne … plus | no longer |
| ne … que | only |
Je ne mange jamais de viande.
I not eat never of meat
I never eat meat.
Only one of these appears at a time. Ne … pas jamais is not a French sentence.
After a negative, the article changes
Un, une, des and the partitive all become de.
Je n’ai pas un frère.
Je n’ai pas de frère.
After a negative the indefinite article collapses to de. See the partitive — this rule catches the partitive too: je bois du café becomes je ne bois pas de café.