French II, First Half Unit

The basic rule for making a French verb negative is to put ne … pas around the verb. Example: Je visite Paris. Je ne visite pas New York.

When the meaning of the verb is completed by an infinitive verb, you must decide which verb needs to be negative. (It's usually the first, conjugated verb.)

In the rare case where we want to make the infinitive negative, we put ne pas in front of the infinitive. Example: Nous préférons ne pas aller en avion. (We prefer not to go by plane.)

Remember that ne will always be in front of the verb; it will never change position. Pas may be replaced by other words and it may change position as well as meaning: Examples:

French Phrase	English Phrase	French Sentence	English Sentence
ne … pas	not	Il n'est pas grand.	He isn't tall.
ne … rien	nothing	Il ne dit rien.	He says nothing.
ne … personne	no one	Elle ne voit personne.	She sees no one.
ne … point	not at all	Il ne parle point.	He doesn't speak at all.
ne … plus	any more	Il ne chante plus.	He doesn't sing any more.
ne … jamais	never	Il ne danse jamais.	He never dances.
ne … aucun(e)	none	Il n'achète aucun disque.	He doesn't buy a single record.
ne … nul(le)	not any	Il n'a nulle idée.	He hasn't any idea.
ne … guère	very little	Elle n'entend guère.	She hardly hears.
ne … ni … ni	neither / nor	Il ne parle ni bien ni mal.	He speaks neither well nor badly.
ne … que	only	Je n'ai qu'un euro.	I have only one euro.

The examples above all show negatives that are objects of the verb. Personne and rien may also be subjects of the verb. Notice the change of position.

(Notice that the position of ne has not changed; it always remains in front of the verb.)

Ne … Ni … Ni

When ni … ni goes with the subjects of a sentence and they are both singular third person, the verb will be singular: Ni mon frère ni ma sœur ne parle allemand. However, when one of the subjects is first or second person, the verb must agree with the sum of those subjects: Ni mes amis ni moi ne parlons chinois. When French uses a pronoun in a double subject, the pronoun must be independent (moi, toi, lui, elle, eux).