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Negations

Negation is formed by ne + verb + negation.

The main negation is ne...pas

Nous ne payerons pas la note car nous n'avons pas aimé notre dîner.
(We will not pay the bill because we did not like our dinner.)

The other common negations are:

aucun, aucune (no, not one, not an)
guère (hardly, scarcely)
jamais (never)
ni...ni (neither...nor)
nul, nulle (no, not any)
pas (not)
pas du tout (not at all)
personne (nobody, no one, not anyone)
plus (any longer, no more, not any more)
point (not at all)
que (only, but only)
rien (nothing)

Vous n'avez rien à dire.
(You do not have anything to say.)

Vos histoires ne sont guère amusantes.
(Your stories are scarcely funny.)

Nous n'avons plus d'argent après ces vacances.
(We no longer have any money after this vacation.)

In simple and compound tenses, ne precedes the conjugated verb and pronoun objects. The second part of the negation follows the conjugated verb (or the subject pronoun in inverted questions).

See:
Interrogative Sentences

Mes enfants ne sortent jamais seuls.
(My children never go out alone.)

Je n'ai pas trouvé mon oncle en Amérique.
(I did not find my uncle in America.)

Et vous, ne l'avez-vous pas trouvé?
(And you, didn't you find him?)

Personne (no one) and nulle part (nowhere) follow the past participle:

Je n'ai vu personne ce soir.
(I did not see anyone this evening.)

C'est normal, je ne suis allé nulle part.
(It is normal, I did not go anywhere.)

Aucun(e) (no one) is always used in the singular and precedes the noun it modifies:

Mon avocat n'a voulu poser aucune question.
(My lawyer didn't want to ask any questions.)

With the ni...ni construction, ni precedes the word/words stressed.

Dans cette boutique, il n'y avait ni parfum ni maquillage.
(In this boutique, there was neither perfume nor makeup.)

When an infinitive is negated, both ne and the second element of the negative precede the infinitive. However, personne (no one) and nulle part (nowhere) follow the infinitive.

See:
Infinitive Phrases.

Dans votre cas, il vaut mieux ne rien dire.
(In your case, it would be better to say nothing.)

Il vaudrait mieux ne parler de ceci à personne.
(It would be better not to talk about this to anyone.)

Pas may be omitted with the verbs cesser (to stop), oser (to dare), pouvoir (to be able to), and savoir (when meaning to know how) when they are followed by an infinitive:

Ma classe ne cesse de me taquiner.
(My class does not stop teasing me.)

Ici, je ne sais où trouver du bon pain.
(Here, I do not know where to find good bread.)

See:
Modal Verbs
Ability

Partitive du, de la, de l', and des become de in a negative sentence.

Nous avons du pain, mais nous n'avons pas de vin.
(We have bread, but we do not have any wine.)

See:
Articles
Partitive Articles

After ni...ni, the partitive is omitted:

Je ne veux rien, ni viande, ni poisson: juste des légumes.
(I want nothing, neither meat nor fish, only vegetables.)

See:
Declarative Sentences
Double Object Pronouns

See Also:


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