Negatives in French: ne…pas and pas de

Level A1

Negatives in French: ne…pas and pas de

You can already make a short statement about work or an object. Now you will deny it or correct it, using ne or n' before the verb and pas after it. The same frame works with the familiar verbs here, with one extra change when you say you have no object.

Start with statements you know

Listen to the five statements below before making them negative. Je means I, travaille means work, and ici means here: Je travaille ici is I work here. For now, travaille is the form used after je; the dictionary form is travailler.

C'est un livre means It's a book, and C'est une chaise means It's a chair: livre is masculine, chaise feminine, so they use un and une respectively. J'ai means I have: J'ai un livre and J'ai une chaise say which object you have. You will use these words again in this lesson; everything you need is here.

Put ne and pas around the verb

With the present-tense verbs in this lesson, put ne before the verb and pas after it: Je travaille becomes Je ne travaille pas, I don't work. Keep travaille in the same form; French does not add an equivalent of English do here. Ne and pas work together to make this sentence negative.

If you add ici, it stays after pas: Je ne travaille pas ici means I don't work here, not that you never work anywhere. Listen to the two full negative sentences, then try saying them.

The last line, Je travaille pas, is only for recognition: in everyday conversation, speakers often leave out ne, while pas still makes the sentence negative. Listen for the meaning, but use the full ne…pas form in this lesson's answers and in standard writing; you do not need to produce the reduced spelling.

Je ne … pas

Correct an identification with Ce n'est pas…

To deny C'est un livre, say Ce n'est pas un livre: It's not a book. Ne becomes n' before the vowel sound in est, and pas follows est. C' returns to the full ce because it now comes before n', not directly before est.

With être in these identifications, keep un or une: Ce n'est pas un livre, Ce n'est pas une chaise. To correct the name, follow the negative with a familiar positive statement: Ce n'est pas un livre; c'est une chaise means It's not a book; it's a chair. You are giving the object its correct name, so no new verb is needed.

Ce n'est pas …

Having no object: Je n'ai pas de…

J'ai un livre means I have a book; Je n'ai pas de livre means I don't have a book. Before the vowel sound in ai, ne becomes n', while je keeps its e because n' now comes between je and ai.

When you mean that you have no book or no chair at all, un and une change to de after pas. Compare J'ai une chaise with Je n'ai pas de chaise: I have a chair / I don't have a chair. Unlike English a in I don't have a book, the French article here changes to de. Keep the two cases apart: possession with avoir gives Je n'ai pas de livre, while identification with être keeps un in Ce n'est pas un livre.

Your turn: deny, then correct

Try these short situations separately, pausing before you look at the answers below. Say that you don't work, then that you don't work here. Someone calls a chair a book: deny that it is a book, then say that it is a chair. Finally, say that you have no book, then that you have no chair.

Check the six sentences below in that order, listen, and say them again. Keep ne or n' in the five negative answers; the fourth answer, C'est une chaise, stays positive. Remember the contrast: ne/n' + verb + pas, then de with these statements of having no object, but un/une when correcting these identifications with être.

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