Negatives and Questions

French negation uses two words that sit on either side of the verb. ne goes in front of the verb and pas goes after it, wrapping the verb like a sandwich:

Positive	Negative	English
Je mange.	Je ne mange pas.	I do not eat.
Il parle français.	Il ne parle pas français.	He does not speak French.
Nous comprenons.	Nous ne comprenons pas.	We do not understand.

Before a vowel or a silent h, ne shortens to n':

• Je **n'**aime pas les maths. — I do not like maths.
• Elle **n'**habite pas ici. — She does not live here.

The ne is essential in writing, even though French speakers often drop it in casual speech. In the exam, always write both ne and pas.

To say "never", "nothing" or "nobody", keep ne before the verb and swap pas for another word:

Negative	Meaning	Example
ne … jamais	never	Je ne bois jamais de café. (I never drink coffee.)
ne … rien	nothing	Il ne dit rien. (He says nothing.)
ne … personne	nobody	Je ne vois personne. (I see nobody.)

Each still needs the ne in front of the verb. These words can also stand alone as a one-word answer:

• Qu'est-ce que tu fais? — Rien. (Nothing.)
• Qui est là? — Personne. (Nobody.)

(Higher tier) Higher students also use ne…plus (no longer), ne…que (only), ne…ni…ni (neither…nor) and ne…pas encore (not yet), plus negative subjects personne ne… / rien ne… (Personne ne sait = Nobody knows).

After a negative verb, the words un, une, du, de la and des all collapse into a single de (or d' before a vowel). The idea is "not any":

Positive	Negative	English
J'ai un frère.	Je n'ai pas de frère.	I don't have a brother.
Il mange des légumes.	Il ne mange pas de légumes.	He doesn't eat vegetables.
Elle boit **de l'**eau.	Elle ne boit **pas d'**eau.	She doesn't drink water.

The definite articles le, la and les do not change:

• J'aime le chocolat → Je n'aime pas le chocolat. — I don't like chocolate.

So the change only affects the indefinite and partitive articles, not le/la/les.

In the perfect tense (passé composé), the verb is made of two parts: the auxiliary (avoir or être) and the past participle. The ne … pas wraps around the auxiliary only, leaving the participle outside:

Sentence	English translation
Je n'ai pas mangé.	I have not eaten.
Il n'est pas venu.	He has not come.
Nous n'avons jamais vu ce film.	We have never seen this film.
Elle n'a rien dit.	She said nothing.

The same holds with the near future: Je ne vais pas sortir (I am not going to go out) — the ne … pas surrounds the conjugated vais.

One exception: with ne … personne in the perfect tense, personne goes after the participle: Je n'ai vu personne (I saw nobody).

French has three ways to turn a statement into a yes/no question, from most informal to most formal:

Method	Example	Register
Intonation	Tu viens? (You're coming?)	informal, spoken
est-ce que	Est-ce que tu viens?	neutral
Inversion	Viens-tu?	formal, written

1. Intonation — keep the word order of a statement and simply raise your voice at the end: Tu aimes le sport?

2. est-ce que — add this phrase to the front of the statement; nothing else changes: Est-ce que tu aimes le sport? Before a vowel it becomes est-ce qu': Est-ce qu'il vient?

3. Inversion — swap the verb and subject pronoun and join them with a hyphen: Aimes-tu le sport? When the verb ends in a vowel and the subject is il / elle / on, insert -t- for sound: A-t-il? Mange-t-elle?

To ask for specific information, use a question word. These combine most naturally with est-ce que or inversion:

Question word	Meaning	Example
qui	who	Qui est-ce? (Who is it?)
que / quoi	what	Que fais-tu? / Tu fais quoi? (What are you doing?)
quand	when	Quand arrives-tu? (When do you arrive?)
où	where	Où habites-tu? (Where do you live?)
pourquoi	why	Pourquoi pleures-tu? (Why are you crying?)
comment	how	Comment vas-tu? (How are you?)
combien (de)	how much/many	Combien de frères as-tu? (How many brothers do you have?)
quel(le)(s)	which / what	Quelle heure est-il? (What time is it?)

The interrogative adjective quel agrees with its noun: quel (m sing), quelle (f sing), quels (m pl), quelles (f pl).

1. Forgetting the ne

Both halves are needed in writing. Write Je ne sais pas, not Je sais pas, even though speech often drops the ne.

2. Keeping un or des after a negative

After a negative, these become de: Je n'ai pas de stylo, not Je n'ai pas un stylo. The articles le / la / les stay unchanged.

3. Splitting the perfect tense wrongly

The ne … pas wraps the auxiliary, not the participle: Je n'ai pas fini, never Je n'ai fini pas.

4. Forgetting the -t- in inversion

When a verb ends in a vowel before il / elle / on, add -t-: Va-t-il? Aime-t-elle?, not Va-il?

5. Mixing up qui and que

qui asks "who" (a person) and que asks "what" (a thing): Qui vient? (Who is coming?) versus Que veux-tu? (What do you want?).