French - Negation - ne ... rien, rien ... ne - Grammar - longua.org

Negation - ne ... rien, rien ... ne

Statements can be possitive or negative. In general, negative statements are expressed by a negation particle. In English e.g. by “no” or “not”.
In French, the following expressions are used for the negation:

- ne ... pas (not)
- ne ... pas du tout (not at all)
- ne ... plus (not anymore)
- ne ... jamais (never)
- ne ... rien (nothing)
- ne ... personne (nobody, no one)
- ne ... aucun / aucune (no, any)

The French negation consists of two parts, the is one negation particle before the verb and one after it.

- verbs: Je ne parle pas avec cette personne.
- nouns: Elle n’a pas d’amis ici.

Examples:

French	English
Je ne mange pas de salade.	I don’t eat salad.
Elle n’écoute pas la musique.	She doesn’t listen to the musik.
Je ne l’ai pas du tout compris.	I haven’t understood anything.
Ils ne se parlent plus.	They don’t talk to each other anymore.
Je n’étais jamais au Japon.	I have never been to Japan.
Je ne mange rien. Und: Rien ne va plus.	I don’t eat anything. (Object) and: Nothing goes anymore. (Subject)
Il n’a vu personne. Und: Personne ne l’a vu.	He hasn’t seen anyone. (Object) and: No one has seen him. (Subject)
Il n’a aucun plan pour ce soir.	He has no plan for this evening.

“rien” and “aucun/e” can be subjects as well as objects.

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French - Negation - ne ... rien, rien ... ne - Grammar - longua.org

Negation - ne ... rien, rien ... ne