Turning a positive French sentence into a negative one is pretty straightforward. In most cases, all you need to do is add “ne” before the verb and “pas” after it.
As often though, this doesn’t work in 100% of cases. Today, you’ll discover how to create a negative French sentence, be it in the present tense, near future, future or imperative.
You’ll also learn how to say “never” or “nobody”.
How to use “ne pas” to create a negative sentence
Before you get started, it’s essential for you to know that there is one case when you never use “ne” before the verb.
That’s when the verb starts with a vowel. In this case, you use “n'”.
Why?
Because it’s easier to pronounce.
Je n’aime pas le café
I don’t like coffee
Now let’s see when you can use the ne + verb + pas formula!
French negative sentence at the present tense
When you create a negative sentence at the present tense, you can easily use the ne + verb + pas formula.
Je ne mange pas ce soir.
I don’t eat tonight.
Vous ne venez pas demain.
You don’t come tomorrow.
French negative sentence at the future tense
The same goes for sentences using the future tense.
Je ne mangerai pas ce soir.
I won’t eat tonight.
Vous ne viendrez pas demain.
You won’t come tomorrow.
French negative sentence using the near future tense
The near future tense is constructed using aller + infinitive verb.
Je ne vais pas venir demain.
I am not going to come tomorrow.
In this case, make sure you put “ne” and “pas” around “aller” and not around the infinitive verb.
French negative sentence using the passé composé tense
The same is true for sentences using the “passé composé. Since the passé composé is constructed using avoir or être + past participle, you only put “ne” + “pas” around the conjugated verb, that is être or avoir.
Je n’ai pas mangé
I haven’t eaten yet.
French negative sentence using the imperative form
The imperative form is used to give an order.
Ne pars pas !
Don’t leave!
French negative sentence containing and object pronoun
When there is an object pronoun, instead of ne + verb + pas, you say ne + pronoun + verb + pas
Je ne le ferai pas.
I will not do it.
How to ask a negative question
You can also use “ne pas” to ask questions.
Tu veux manger ?
Tu ne veux pas manger?
Est-ce que tu veux manger ?
Est-ce que tu ne veux pas manger ?
Veux-tu manger ?
Ne veux-tu pas manger ?
When you ask a question using inversion, the structure becomes ne + verb + pronoun + pas + infinitive.
Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, your grammar book is the only place where you’ll see people using inversion to ask questions anyway.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Your grammar book is the only place where you’ll see people using inversion to ask questions” quote=”Your grammar book is the only place where you’ll see people using inversion to ask questions”]
How to say “never”, “nobody” or “nothing
You now know how to create a negative sentence, that’s pretty cool. But what if you want to say “never”, “nobody” or “nothing” instead of “not”?
Well, it’s actually simple.
All you need to do is… use “jamais” (never), “personne” (nobody) or “rien” (nothing) instead of “pas”.
Je ne ferais jamais ça.
I would never do that.
Je n’attends personne.
I don’t expect anyone.
Je ne veux rien.
I don’t want anything.
Why French people never say “ne”
You may have noticed that the French rarely pronounce the “ne” when they speak.
That’s because they are lazy.
Here you go, one French stereotype confirmed.
No seriously, in informal situations, it’s perfectly acceptable to drop the “ne” when you speak French.
That’s one of several differences between written and spoken French.
Je ne danse jamais.
Je danse jamais.
Je n’ai pas faim.
J’ai pas faim.
Your French will only improve if you practice, so write your own negative sentence in the comment section below this article!
Pearl
What is the rule to change un une to de in négation? Please clear that.
Bob Neinast
I am reading something in French from around 1620. It’s a negative question, or is it?
It starts, “Consequemment faut-il pas,” followed by something to do.
Now, if that were “Consequemment ne faut-il pas”, I’d know it would be translated as “Isn’t it, then, necessary to do that something?”.
Is the correct translation here however, “Is it, then, a necessary step to do that something?”
Were they dropping the ne in writing way back in 1620? Or is this really a positive question?
Tera F
How do you transform an est-ce que question into a negative one?
Daniel Xavier
Why do some sentences change totally as in
1.’Y a-t-u toujours des gens au marché'(use ne….plus)
Ans:non,il n’y a plus de gens au marché.
Can someone please explain it for me???
Jo
From what it looks like this is an inverted question and the answer is written in the proper form using “ne… plus” which translates to neither or not… either.
smita gupta
il n’y a pas de cahier sur la table.in this sentence according to rule sholud it be ne instead of n’. if not then why?
Tina King
Isn’t ‘to dance’ in French ‘danser’ not ‘dancer’ as it says above?
Benjamin Houy
You are right, I corrected it 🙂
len
Reply to Trupti Bhore
il y a un, une, des
il n’y a pas de
In general, think “pas de” although it’s not always the case.
Preference verbs (aimer, preferer, detester, adorer – sorry can’t do accents in this box) ALWAYS use definite article (la le les l’) BOTH in positive and negative constructions. Hope that helps.
Trupti Bhore
Hello, can you please tell me if un, une,des change to de in negative sentences (not with ètre) but avoir and il ya,but what about other verbs in general
MysteryHalfHelper
I am pretty sure that you do need to change to de cause its negative???? I’m not gonna say the full answer cause then I’m not a half helper
anshuman
same doubt here.
Suhaani Verlekar
What about pronominal verbs??????????????
Nancy
When you want to negate an imperative in an informal situation, can you still drop the “ne” as in N’arrête pas to Arrête pas?
Benjamin Houy
You can but whether you should do it or not depends a lot on the situation and the verb.
For example, you could perfectly go from “ne fais pas ça !” to “fais pas ça !”.
Arrête pas sounds a bit strange somehow but it may just be because of the lack of context.
Brazilian person
Thank you so much for doing the lessons and helping people out, this is really inspiring!
Keep up with the AWESOME work!
Benjamin Houy
De rien :). I’m glad you like the lessons.
Ben Chan
Its a great and informative it, but it could be better if you added the perfect tense.
Aja Izim
If you find déjà in a sentence, how do you place the negative of the sentence? Like j’ai déjà mangé
Benjamin Houy
In this case, you need to delete “déjà” and use “encore” instead:
Je n’ai pas encore mangé.
Irene Belyakov-Goodman
I understand if “personne” is an object : “Je ne veux personne.” How does it work if it is the subject? Is it “Personne ne le veut” ( but not “pas” )?
Benjamin Houy
Yes, “personne ne le veut” would be correct 🙂
Irene Belyakov-Goodman
Merci beaucoup ?
tommy
j’aime francaise, mais je ne goute pas la cusine francaise. et toi? qu’est ce que tu manges pour ton diner?
Joe
J’ai mangé un dîner incroyable, J’ai mangé du steak, c’était un filet mignon, c’est très délicieux, Merci d’avoir posé la questionne
ZStriker
What about if the verb etre is used? I heard something different happens.
Benjamin Houy
It works the same way with “être”.
Je ne suis pas là.
Il n’est pas là.
Diya Baweja
YEAH!!! when we convert a sentence containing verb etre, “de la”, “du”, “des”, “de l'” does not change to “de” or “d'” while in other verbs, this rule applies. That’s it.