b With a compound tense, ne comes before the auxiliary verb and any object pronouns which
precede it, whilst pas or any other of the negative expressions from group icomes after the
auxiliary verb but beforethe past participle, e.g. Je ne l’ai jamais vu. However, negative
expressions from group ii followthe past participle, e.g. Il n’a vu personne. Il ne l’a trouvé nulle
part.
With an interrogative inverted verb, ne precedes the verb in the normal way, whilst pas or any
other of the negative expressions from list ifollows after the subject pronoun which is
attached to the verb, e.g. N’avez-vous pas fini votre travail?
Negative expressions from list iifollow the past participle as always, e.g. N’avez-vous vu
personne?
c With a perfect infinitive, as with a present infinitive (see The negative in the text, 1e, above),
the usual pattern is that ne and any negative expression from group iprecede the infinitive
avoir or être, whereas any negative expression from group iifollows the past participle, e.g. a Il
regrette de ne pas avoir fait ce travail; b Il est content de n’avoir rencontré personne.
However, examples will be found where expressions from group ifollow avoir or être.
e.g. Il regrette de ne l’avoir pas fait
d With the expression ne... que (only), the second element que is placed immediately before
the word or phrase to which the idea of ‘only’ applies.
e.g. Je ne suis venu que pour vous parler; Vous ne le voyez que le samedi; Je n’ai parlé qu’à lui
e A sentence may begin with one of the following negative expressions as its subject: jamais,
rien, personne, aucun, nul, pas un, ni... ni. When this happens, ne remains in its normal
position, before the verb and before any preceding object pronouns, e.g. Personne ne pourra
vous aider; Rien ne s’est passé. The temptation in such cases to add pas after the verb must at all
costs be avoided.
NoteWhether they occur as subject or object of the sentence, personne and rien may be
qualified by a masculine adjective or participle, which must always be preceded by de.
e.g. rien de nouveau; personne d’intéressant
f Double negatives may occur, with ne as usual before the verb and a combination of, e.g. jamais
and rien after it. The order in which the negative expressions are listed in iand iiis the order
in which they are combined in double negatives, e.g. Il ne fait jamais rien. The only negative
expression which may be combined with ne... pas is ni.
e.g. Il n’a pas besoin de votre aide ni de votre pitié
2 USE OF NEa It should be noted that increasingly ne is omitted in less formal varieties of spoken French,
and pas alone carries the negative force.
b In certain set expressions, particularly in literary style, pas may be omitted, leaving ne alone to
carry the negative force.
The negative 45