French · Rung 7 of 26

Negation: ne… pas

French negation is a two-piece clamp around the conjugated verb: ne… pas. Je ne parle pas. With a compound tense the clamp encloses the auxiliary and leaves the participle outside: je n'ai pas parlé, not “je n'ai parlé pas”. Before an infinitive, both pieces go together in front: ne pas fumer. Other negations swap the second piece and with it the meaning: ne… jamais (never), ne… plus (no longer), ne… rien (nothing), ne… personne (nobody), ne… que (only, which negates nothing at all). In speech the ne nearly always vanishes — je sais pas — but in writing it cannot be dropped.

Where this sits

Comes after
Present tense
Opens up
Object pronouns

Exercises from this rung

Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest

  1. Elle ___ aime ___ le café.

    • n' … pas
    • ne … plus
    • ne … pas
    • n' … non

    Why ne elides before a vowel, like any short word ending in e: n'aime, n'est, n'ai. The second piece does not change.

    easier

  2. Je n'ai ___ dix euros.

    • que
    • rien
    • pas
    • plus

    Why ne… que negates nothing: it means “only”. It wears the shape of a negation with the sense of a restriction, which is why it confuses. Je n'ai que dix euros is “I have ten and no more”.

    in between

  3. Il m'a demandé de ___ fumer.

    • ne pas
    • non
    • ne … pas
    • pas ne

    Why Before an infinitive both pieces go together and in front: ne pas fumer, ne pas entrer. It is the one position where the clamp does not open, and the one on every sign.

    harder