Some Aspects Of French Negation

Two-part ConstructionFrench has a two-part negation for verbs, consisting of the 'ne' particle (a global negation), and one of several other words clarifying the type of negation: "The Elided 'e'- ne and n'As with other words ending in a vowel in French, the e of the 'ne' particle is elided (contraction) when directly Rosetta Stone
preceding a word beginning in a vowel (or with a silent 'h' then a vowel): * " Il n'hsite pas."He does not hesitate."pound Verbs and Position of the Negationpound verbs are posed of the past participle of a verb [i.e. mang (eaten), parl (talked), which remains unchanged in terms of tense] and an auxiliary (supporting) verb such as have avoir (have) and tre (be).It is the auxiliary verb which is marked for tense, and so it is the auxiliary verb which bees sandwiched between the first part of the construction, ne, and the second (qualifying) part of the negation: * " Je n'ai pas dormi chez moi. I didn't sleep at home." There is an exception, however, when personne (no one) and nulle part (anywhere) are used with pound tenses, with these secondary negation particles following the whole pound verb (and thus following the same negation construction as that of simple verbs): * " Nous n'avons vu personne."We didn't see anybody." Rosetta Stone Korean
* " Je n'ai vu les enfants nulle part. I did not see the kids anywhere."Ne..que (only) in pound tenses can take both positions, depending on the intended meaning, as it is strictly speaking an adverb and not a negation: * " Je n'ai pris qu'une pomme."I only took one apple." * " Je n'ai pens qu' vous."I only thought of you."In fact, with 'ne ... que' the negation construction is not strictly necessary, and the same thought can be expressed positively with the word seulement (only): * " J'ai seulement pris une pomme. Rosetta Stone Portuguese
"I only took one apple."Spoken and Written UsageIn colloquial French it is mon to drop the 'ne' altogether in fast speech (but not in writing).It is also mon in current literary style to omit the pas particle with the verbs vouloir (to want), pouvoir (to be able to) and savoir (to know).Thus we have: * " Je ne sais pas. " (correct) * " Je sais pas.