French Negation (La Négation)

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the rules, indicators, and structures of negation in the French language as presented in the lecture notes.

ne… pas

The basic form of negation meaning 'not'; placed around the verb.

n'

The form 'ne' takes when the following verb begins with a vowel or h mute.

de

What indefinite articles (un, une, des) and partitive articles (du, de la, de l') change to in the negative form, unless the verb is 'être'.

ne… jamais

Never; used as the negative of 'toujours' (always), 'souvent' (often), or 'quelquefois' (sometimes).

ne… personne

Nobody or no one; used as the negative of 'tout le monde' (everyone) or 'quelqu'un' (someone).

ne… rien

Nothing; used as the negative of 'tout' (everything) or 'quelque chose' (something).

ne… plus

No longer or no more; used as the negative of 'encore' (still).

ne… pas encore

Not yet; used as the negative of 'déjà' (already).

ne… nulle part

Nowhere; used as the negative of 'partout' (everywhere) or 'quelque part' (somewhere).

ne… que

Only; a restrictive expression that does not follow the negative 'de' rule because it does not mean a negative.

ne… ni… ni

Neither… nor; used when there is one verb and two or more nouns/adjectives.

Personne ne / Rien ne

Sentence starters where the negation word acts as the subject, followed by 'ne' and a verb in the third person singular form.

Ce n'est pas

The negative form of 'C'est' (This is not).

Il n'y a pas

The negative form of 'Il y a' (There isn't / There aren't).

Passé Composé placement (Rien)

In this tense, 'rien' is placed before the past participle (e.g., Je n'ai rien mangé).

Passé Composé placement (Personne/Nulle part)

In this tense, these negation words are placed after the past participle (e.g., Je n'ai vu personne).

Article rules for 'ne… ni… ni'

In this form, 'et' is dropped, and indefinite/partitive articles are dropped, but definite articles (le, la, l', les) are never dropped.

Interrogative negative placement

In this form, 'ne' is placed before the inversion and 'pas' is placed after the inversion.