Negatives
Introduction
Being negative in French is mostly a question of using Adverbs,
though there are negative Pronouns and
Conjunctions. The verb is usually
involved in negation, so if you are not familiar with French Verbs,
you should check them out first.
The sign of the negative with the French verb is ne.
It's probably easiest to look at examples of how negatives work:
Il n'est pas
difficile de réfuter les opinions émises.
It's not difficult...
Il n'est pas
étonnant de constater que...
It's not surprising to find
that...
Le totémisme n'est plus
aussi répandu.
Totemism is no longer so widespread.
Ils n'ont jamais
cru à cette identification.
They never believed in
this identification.
Il n'y a rien
à faire.
There's nothing to be done.
On ne voit personne
dire non.
No one says no.(Literally: You
see no one saying no.)
On ne voit guère
plus de cas.
There are hardly any more cases.
Elle n'aura plus
jamais rien
à faire.
She'll never have anything
to do any more.
The negative adverb ne always precedes the conjugated
verb in a negative sentence (it is often omitted in spoken French).
In addition, another negative adverb (or pronoun), such as pas,
rien, personne, jamais, and sometimes more than one, is placed
after the verb.
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English
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Example
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ne...pas
|
not
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Il ne joue pas.
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ne...jamais
|
never
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Elle ne joue jamais.
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ne...plus
|
no longer, no more
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On ne joue plus.
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ne...rien
|
nothing
|
Ils n'ont rien.
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ne...personne
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no one
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On ne voit personne.
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ne...guère
|
hardly
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On n'en voit guère plus.
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ne...aucun(e)
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none, no one
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Elle n'a aucune preuve.
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ne...ni...ni
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neither... nor
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Il n'a ni amis ni pain.
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ne...que
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only
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(see below)
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Ne ... que
Note that ne ... que is not a real negative. It is the
equivalent of only: Extremely common in written
French.
Il n'y a que
cinq sociétés.
There are only five companies.
Ils n'ont que
cinq ans.
They are only five years old.
about Negatives.
Exercises
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