French Grammar - Negation

Negation

French usually expresses negation in two parts, with the particle ne attached to the verb, and one or more negative words (connegatives) that modify the verb or one of its arguments. Negation encircles a conjugated verb with ne after the subject and the negative adverb after the conjugated verb, however both parts of the negation come before the targeted verb when it is in its infinitive form. For example, simple verbal negation is expressed by ne before the finite verb (and any object pronouns) and the adverb pas after the finite verb:

• « Je les ai pris » ("I took them") → « Je ne les ai pas pris » ("I did not take them")
• « Je voudrais regarder un film et m'endormir » ("I would like to watch a movie and fall asleep") → « Je voudrais regarder un film et ne pas m'endormir » ("I would like to watch a movie and not fall asleep")

Other negative words are used in combination with ne to express more complex types of negation.

• negative adverbs

ne … plus — "not anymore, no longer"

ne … jamais — "never"

ne … nulle part — "nowhere"

ne … guère — "not much, hardly" (literary)

ne … point / aucunement / nullement — "not, not at all" (literary)

• negative pronouns

ne … rien — "nothing"

ne … personne — "nobody"

• others

(determiner) ne … aucun — "no/not any" (also nul, literary)

(restrictive particle) ne … que — "only"

Examples:

• « Je ne sais pas. » — "I do not know."
• « Il ne fume plus. » — "He does not smoke anymore."
• « Nous n'avons vu personne. » — "We did not see anybody."
• « Elle n'a rien bu. » — "She didn't drink anything."
• « Je n'ai aucune idée. » — "I have no idea."
• « Vous ne mangez que des légumes ? » — "You eat only vegetables?"

The negative adverbs (and rien) follow finite verbs but precede infinitives (along with ne):

• « Il prétend ne pas/ne jamais/ne rien fumer » — "He claims not to smoke/to never smoke/to smoke nothing."

Moreover, it is possible for rien and personne to be used as the subject of a sentence, which moves them to the beginning of the sentence (before the ne):

• « Rien n'est certain. » — "Nothing is certain."
• « Personne n'est arrivé. » — "Nobody came."

Several negative words (other than pas) can appear in the same sentence, but the sentence is still usually interpreted as a simple negation. When another negative word occurs with pas, a double negation interpretation usually arises, but this construction is criticised.

• « Elle n'a plus jamais rien dit à personne. » — "She never said anything else to anybody."
• « Elle n'a pas vu personne. — "She did not see nobody (i.e., she saw somebody)."