Hello everyone! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast! This is episode number 146, numéro 146! Today, we’re talking about negation. And I already created an episode on how to form negative sentences a few years ago, episode 36, but today, we dive a bit deeper into this topic. So consider this Part 2. And if you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, please do so before you listen to this episode. I’ll put the link in the notes. It’s going to give you the important basics of negation, which you need to know before listening to this episode.
Now, as usual, if you’re new to the podcast, welcome! Make sure you have your lesson's cheat sheet in front of you so you can listen to the words and see how they are written. And when you finish this lesson, head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to download your lesson's exercises and practice what you've learned today. You’ll find all the download links in the episode notes on your podcast platform.
Alright, as I said earlier, I hope you listened to the first episode on negation, otherwise this lesson is not going to make much sense, but anyways, I’ll give you a very brief recap.
So in part 1, episode 36, we learned that to create negative sentences, we use the little French words "ne" and “pas.” “Ne” goes before the conjugated verb and "pas" goes after the conjugated verb. Let me give some examples. I’ll start with the affirmative sentence and we’ll make it negative.
- "Je mange" (I eat) becomes "Je ne mange pas" (I do not eat). We have ne before the conjugated verb “mange” and “pas” after the conjugated verb.
- Another example: "Tu parles français” becomes "Tu ne parles pas français" (You do not speak French). Ne comes before the conjugated verb parles and pas comes right after.
Alright, so that’s the very basics of negation.
Now, sometimes you need to be a bit more specific with your negation. Sometimes “not” is not enough, and you need to be more precise with words like 'never,' 'nothing,' or 'none!' And to do that, you need to replace the little word "pas", with other words. And that’s exactly what we’re going to learn to do today!
So, let me give you a list of other ways to express negation, with examples.
- "Ne... jamais" (never): So to say “never”, you replace the little word "pas" with the word "jamais" For example, if we have "Je ne mange pas de viande" (I don't eat meat), you replace “pas” with “jamais” to say never. → It becomes "Je ne mange jamais de viande" ("I never eat meat.")
Side note: you still need to keep little word “ne”! Technically, you can’t just have the word “jamais” - but but but, we do tend when we speak, in spoken French, to omit the “ne”. But technically it’s still incorrect not to write it. So it’s up to you. As I always say, I teach you the French grammar rules, and then when you’re comfortable enough with the rules, then you can break the rules. But in writing just know it’s incorrect to not have it.
- "Ne... plus" (no longer/no more): Replace "pas" with "plus" to express "no longer" or "no more." For example, with "Il ne travaille pas ici" (He doesn’t work here), replace “pas” with “plus”, so it becomes "Il ne travaille plus ici (He no longer works here.)
- "Ne... rien" (nothing or not anything): Replace "pas" with "rien" when you want to say "nothing" or "not anything." For example, "Je ne vois pas" (I don’t see) becomes "Je ne vois rien" (I see nothing or I don’t see anything).
- "Ne... personne" (nobody/no one): To say "nobody" or "no one," use "ne… personne" For example, "Je ne connais personne ici" (I know nobody/no one here)
- "Ne... aucun(e)" (none, not any): To say “none” or “not any” replace “pas” with “aucun” or “aucune”, depending on the gender. "Il n’a pas d’ami" (He has no friends) becomes "Il n'a aucun ami" or “il n’a aucune amie” (He hasn’t got any friends).
- "Ne... nulle part" (nowhere, not anywhere): "Il ne va nulle part" (He goes nowhere or he doesn’t go anywhere).
- "Ne... ni... ni..." (neither... nor...): This is made with 3 words, and it’s is used to negate two or more items simultaneously. For example "Il ne mange pas de viande et pas de poissons" (He doesn’t eat meat and doesn’t eat fish) becomes "Il ne mange ni viande ni poisson" (He eats neither meat nor fish).
Alright, time for a quick recap before we wrap up:
- "Ne... jamais" (never): Je ne mange jamais de viande. (I never eat meat.)
- "Ne... plus" (no longer/no more): Il ne travaille plus ici. (He no longer works here.)
- "Ne... rien" (nothing or not anything): Je ne vois rien. (I see nothing or I don’t see anything).
- "Ne... personne" (nobody/no one): Je ne connais personne ici. (I know nobody/no one here)
- "Ne... aucun(e)" (none, not any): Il n'a aucun ami(e). (He hasn’t got any friends).
- "Ne... nulle part" (nowhere, not anywhere): Il ne va nulle part. (He goes nowhere or he doesn’t go anywhere).
- "Ne... ni... ni..." (neither... nor...): Il ne mange ni viande ni poisson. (He eats neither meat nor fish).
That’s all for today’s lesson negation part 2! I hope you enjoyed it. Now, time to head over to the French Made Easy Exercises Library to practice what you’ve learned today!
I’ll chat with you next week. À bientôt, bye.
