Forms of the negative

 How to express the negative in French

Structures of the negative

Like English, French has more than one way of converting an affirmative sentence into a negative sentence.  
Let's start with English. The affirmative statement He has some Belgian chocolates, can be put into the negative in different ways, either He doesn't have any Belgian chocolates, or else He has no Belgian chocolates. In the first case the negation is applied to the verb, in the second it is applied to the direct noun object.
Negation can sometimes also be applied to the subject, as in Neither he nor her have any Belgian chocolates  .
   However the verbal form of negation is much more common in English, and it's just the same in French.

1. Normal negation - applied to the verb

The most common way of putting a statement into the negative, is to add the negative particles ne and pas to the verb.

1.1. The standard structure

In a standard French sentence, the negative structure is always the same unless the object is a pronoun

Verb 1 is the first verbal element, the one that is conjugated: it may be the main verb (in the simple present, future etc, such as mange, mangerai ) or else it will be an auxiliary (ai, aura, veux, vais, etc).  Verb 2 is a participle or/and an infinitive, depending on the tense, if one or both of these are needed
Examples:

Subject	NE	Verb1	PAS	Verb2 (+3)
Je	NE or n'	mange	pas	–
		ai		mangé
		veux		manger
Il		doit		avoir mangé
Le garçon		va		manger

1.2. When the object is a pronoun

The structure is slightly different in statements in which the object is a pronoun.
2.1. In standard tenses, where Verb1 is a form of the auxiliary as avoir, or is the main verb itself (with no auxiliary) the structure is. Examples:

Subject	NE	Pronoun	Verb1	PAS	Verb2
Je	NE	le	mange	pas	–
		l'	ai		mangé
Nous		les	avons		mangés
Les policiers		nous	auront		vus

2.2. In other cases, where Verb1 is a modal auxiliary such as aller, pouvoir or vouloir, or an independent first verb such as espérer, souhaiter, oser or préférer, the structure is. Examples:

Subject	NE	Verb1	PAS	Pronoun	Verb2 (+3)
Je	NE / n'	vais	pas	le	voir
		peux		vous	aider
Nous		espérons		les	perdre
Les policiers		oseront		les	arrêter

1.3. JAMAIS  PLUS and GUERE

In addition to pas, French has three other  negative particles commonly used with verbs : jamais (never) , plus (no longer, no more) and guère (hardly).
They are used just like pas, in appropriate circumstances.

Je	NE	le	mange	JAMAIS	–
Nous		les	avons		mangés
Je		les	ai	PLUS	vus

Je	NE / n'	vais	JAMAIS	le	voir
Les policiers		oseront		les	arrêter
Votre femme		va	PLUS	vous	croire
Ils		peuvent	GUERE	se	comprendre

1.4. Questions

In negative questions, which are not all that common, the subject of the question in French has to be a pronoun, so the structure is always the same. If a noun subject is required (as in example 3 below), the noun preceeds the pronoun, but (unlike in English)  the pronoun cannot be omitted when an interrogative verb structure is used.

2. The alternative -  negation applied to a noun

In French, negation can applied to a noun which is the subject or the direct object of a statement. The example given in English at the top of this page could be translated into French as Il a quelques chocolats belges, In French, we can apply the negation to the object, and the result is Il n'a aucun chocolat belge.
Important: It is important to remember that in French, unlike English, the key part of the negation, the particle NE, remains attached to the verb. The secondary element, which is pas in verbal structures, is replaced by one of the following:
Use of these is most easily shown by a mixed bag of examples, with negation applied either to the subject or to the object

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