Tongue of Fire

"And [the apostles] saw what appeared to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the Spirit enabled them." - Acts 2:3-4

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Lesson 1.9: Negation

Up until now, we’ve been learning different ways to talk about things that happened. Now we’re going to learn negation, which is how we talk about things that didn’t happen: in other words, how we say “not” and other related ideas.

A pair of negative words

In French, negation is always accomplished using a pair of words: ne (not) and some other negative word. The most common partner word is pas (not), and you use them to say something didn’t happen like this: [subject] + ne + [conjugated verb] + pas + [rest of sentence, optional]

Example: Il conduit souvent. (He drives often.) becomes Il ne conduit pas souvent. (He doesn’t drive often.) Example: J’aime les oranges. (I like oranges.) becomes Je n’aime pas les oranges. (I don’t like oranges.)

Here are some other negative words that can be paired with ne:

To use them, just substitute them in for pas in the previous formula.

Example: Je ne fume jamais. (I never smoke.) Example: Tu n’écoutes personne. (You don’t listen to anybody.) Example: Je ne vois rien. (I don’t see anything.) Example: Il ne prend plus la classe d’histoire. (He doesn’t take history class anymore.) Example: Nous n’allons nulle part près de cette rue. (We don’t go anywhere near that street.) Example: Ils ne servent ni le café ni les croissants. (They serve neither coffee nor croissants; They don’t serve coffee or croissants.) Example: Je n’ai aucun frère. (I have no brother; I don’t have any brothers.) Example: Je n’ai aucune sœur. (I have no sister; I don’t have any sisters.) Example: Je n’ai pas de sœur. (I have no sister; I don’t have any sisters.) Example: Vous n’avez que cinq pages. (You only have five pages.)

Negative subjects

Personne, rien, nouns preceded by aucun(e), and phrases built with ni can also serve as the subject of a sentence. In that case, follow this form: [negative word/phrase] + ne + [conjugated verb] + [rest of sentence, optional]

Example: Personne ne sait ce qu’il s’est passé. (Nobody knows what happened.) Example: Rien ne peut te faire mal ici. (Nothing can hurt you here.) Example: Aucun ordinateur ne peut stocker des données infinies. (No computer can store infinite data.) Example: Ni la classe d’anglais ni la classe de français me semble très difficile. (Neither English class nor French class seems very hard to me.)

You can also combine a negative subject with another negative word to create a more complicated idea. Here are some examples with all negative words underlined:

Example: Personne n’aime qu’une seule chose. (Nobody just likes one thing.) Example: Aucun sorcier qui existe ou existait, ni aucun homme dans tout Oz, ne va jamais me faire descendre ! (No wizard that there is or was, nor any man in all of Oz, is ever gonna bring me down!)

Casual negation

In casual French, it’s common to drop ne altogether and just convey negation using the other negative word. While this is technically gramatically incorrect, it’s normal and acceptable in informal situations.

Example: Je sais pas. (I don’t know.) is equivalent to Je ne sais pas. Example: Tu fais jamais ça ! (You never do that!) is equivalent to Tu ne fais jamais ça !
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