French Grammar in Context

The negative in the text

1 NEGATION OF VERBS AND WORD ORDER

aNegation with a verb is generally expressed by placing ne (which elides to n’ before a vowel)

beforethe verb and pasimmediately afterit, e.g. n’êtes pas (line 5). This translates the English

‘not’.

b Other negative expressions which are used together with ne include ne... plus (= no longer,
no more) in lines 29–30, ne... que ( = only) and ne... pas que (= not only) in line 71, and ne

... pas du tout (= not at all) in line 78. There is also the adjectival ne... aucun(e) (=
absolutely no) in lines 23 and 73. It should be noted that this expression is very rarely found in
the plural, pas de or sans being more usual.

c Where the verb is preceded by a reflexive pronoun, by a direct or indirect object pronoun,
and/or by y or en, ne must come before any such pronoun(s).
e.g. il ne s’agit pas (line 24), il n’y a pas (line 45)

d Where an auxiliary verb such as aller, devoir, vouloir, pouvoir is followed by an infinitive, ne
comes before the auxiliary verb, and the other negative expression (pas, plus) generally follows
the auxiliary, but comes before the infinitive, e.g. ne pouvaient plus subsister (lines 29–30).
Notable exceptions to this are personne and aucun, and the other negative expressions listed in
Discover more about the negative,1 a iibelow. They follow the infinitive
e.g. je ne veux voir personne; il ne peut tolérer aucun inconvénient

e With a present infinitive which stands alone, both ne and pas stand together in front of the
infinitive, e.g. ne pas accepter (line 50), but notable exceptions again are personne and aucun
(and all the expressions in Discover more about the negative,1 a iibelow) which follow the
infinitive.
e.g. gêné de n’avoir aucun livre

The negative 43

Daniel Le Scornet, Regards

65 d’envisager autrement l’emploi, les

projets personnels, y compris

amoureux: songeons que l’âge moyen

du premier enfant pour une femme est

de vingt-huit ans et demi! On peut

70 parler d’une grande modification

culturelle mais il ne s’agit pas quede

cela: les jeunes sont dans une contrainte

terrible et il n’existe souvent aucune

possibilité pour un projet de famille.

75 J’insiste parce que la jeunesse

constitue la première urgence et la

multiplication des «mesures jeunes»

n’y répond pas du tout. J’attends un

vrai débat à ce sujet.