La négation/ The negative form

Forming negatives is an important part of speaking and writing French. 

You will get extra marks in the knowledge of grammar criteria in speaking and writing for using the negative form accurately. 

If you don't know how to say something, you could try and say the opposite by using a negative phrase. 

The negative form is made of two parts in French : 

- NE that will come after the pronoun or subject and before the conjugated verb. If the verb starts with a vowel NE become N'.

- The second part comes after the conjugated verb. 

Example : NE ...PAS = NOT

Je ne fais pas de sport = I don't do sport.

Je n'ai pas fait de sport hier = I haven't done any sport yesterday.


Other negative structures:

• ne…jamais = never 
Je ne fais jamais de sport = I never do any sport

• ne…plus = no longer/ not anymore
Je ne fais plus de sport = I don't do sport anymore

• ne…pas assez = not enough
Il n'y a pas assez de personnes = There are not enough people

• ni…ni... = neither... nor
Je n'aime ni le foot ni le rugby = I neither like football nor rugby

Higher structures 

If you are doing the higher tier exams at GCSE, you will be expected to understand and use these negative structures.
•ne…rien = nothing / not anything
Je ne lis rien = I don't read anything 

•ne…aucun(e) = not any ...
Il n'y a aucun restaurant dans le village = There is not a single restaurant in the village.

•ne….personne = no one
Elle n'aime personne = She doesn't like anyone.

•ne…que = only ( restriction)
Il n'aime que les jeux vidéos = He only likes video games.

If this post helped you, have a look at my other posts on French grammar and how to excel at 
GCSE and A Level French.
Do you need some help for a specific grammar point or aspect of GCSE or A Level French?
Send me a message using the contact form and I can cover it in a future post.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

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