Negative

In English we express the negative by saying "don’t" or "not", e.g. "I don’t work hard" or "She is not listening".

The basic negative form in French is obtained by placing "ne" before the verb, and "pas" after it.

i.e. Je ne travaille pas         I don’t/am not working

Elle n’écoute pas               She doesn’t/is not listening

In the perfect tense the same rule applies, but the "ne" and "pas" go around the part of "avoir" or "être".

i.e. Je n’ai pas travaillé         I didn’t work/haven’t worked

Elle n’a pas écouté               She didn’t listen/hasn’t listened

There are several other negative forms which work in the same way.

ne verb rien             nothing         je ne fais rien

                                                  je n’ai rien fait

ne verb jamais         never           il ne travaille jamais

                                               il n’a jamais travaillé

ne verb nulle part     nowhere                        nous n’allons nulle part

ne verb plus             no more/no longer         il n’y a plus de livres

ne verb que             only                              elle n’a que deux livres

ne verb ni ..ni ..        neither .. nor ..             je n’aime ni les pommes ni les poires

ne verb personne      nobody                         il n’y a personne

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