The Negative Form

The Negative Form allows us to negate a statement, express disagreement, or deny the occurrence of an event or action. To make a sentence negative, you need two negative terms:

The first one is “NE” or N’ – if the verb begins with a vowel and
The second one can be: “PAS” (not), or “PLUS” (neither, not either) “RIEN” (nothing, not anything) “JAMAIS”(never) “PERSONNE” (nobody, no one).

NE goes before the verb and PAS or the other terms come after.

Think of a hamburger when you make a sentence negative:

NE is like the top bun,

PAS is like the bottom bun, and

the VERB is like the hamburger in the middle

Short Video

Grammar : Negative Form

Negative Terms	Meaning
ne … pas	not
ne … plus	no longer, no more, not … any longer, not … any more
ne … rien	nothing, not … anything
ne … jamais	never, not … ever
ne … personne	nobody, no one, not … anybody, not … anyone

Examples:

Je mange. (I eat.) – Je ne mange pas. (I do not eat)

Je travaille (I work) – Je ne travaille pas ( I don’t work) – Je ne travaille plus ( I don’t work any more)

J’habite à Brampton – je n’habite pas a Brampton – je n’habite plus a Brampton ( I no longer live in Brampton)

J’aime cuisiner – je n’aime pas cuisiner

j’ai une soeur – je n’ai pas de soeur

Other Examples:

Ne changez rien. Don’t change anything

Je ne vois personne. I can’t see anybody.

Elle n’arrive jamais à l’heure. She never arrives on time.

When the sentence is conjugated in simple tense, the first term “ne”/”n’ “ is placed directly before the verb, unless the verb is preceded by an object, in which case you should place “ne” before the object. The second term is placed directly after the verb.

Examples

Je n’aime pas les légumes
Mellie ne court jamais
Nous ne voulons pas aller au travail
Vous n’aimez personne
Il n’était plus content
Elle ne fait rien

Au passé composé

When the sentence is conjugated in a compound tense (passé composé), the first term “ne”/”n’ “ is placed directly before the auxiliary, unless the verb is preceded by an object, in which case you should place “ne” before the object. The second term is placed directly after the auxiliary. Be careful there is an exception with “personne” that is placed after the verb.