🗣️ 27. Negation

Standard written French negates a clause with two words. The first is ne, a clitic placed before the finite verb and its object clitics. The second says what kind of negation it is: pas "not", plus "no longer", jamais "never", rien "nothing", personne "nobody", aucun "no, none", nulle part "nowhere", guère "hardly", point "not at all" (literary, regional). In speech ne is mostly dropped and the second word carries the negation alone: Je sais pas. Two negative words in one clause do not cancel each other: Il ne dit jamais rien à personne is one negation. And ne also occurs without negative meaning, in ne … que "only" and as the "expletive" ne of some subordinate clauses. This chapter gives the two-part negation and its positions, the negative words, negative concord, ne … que, the dropping of ne in speech with counts, the de after negation, constituent negation and scope, expletive ne, the history of the system, and the UD analysis.

Contents:

1. Ne … pas and the positions of the two parts
2. The negative words
3. Negative words as subjects, and in compound tenses
4. Several negative words: negative concord
5. Negation without a verb: non, pas, si
6. Ne … que: restriction
7. Speech: ne dropped
8. De after negation
9. Expletive ne and ne alone
10. Constituent negation and scope
11. Where it came from: ne, pas and the cycle
12. The UD analysis
13. How Mova handles it
14. Sources

1. Ne … pas and the positions of the two parts

Ne stands immediately before the finite verb; only the object clitics, y and en may come between them. Pas stands immediately after the finite verb:

Je ne sais pas. I NEG know not — "I don't know."

Il ne le lui donne pas. he NEG it to-him gives not — "He doesn't give it to him."

Before a vowel or a mute h, ne elides to n': Elle n'aime pas le café. Il n'habite pas ici.

Compound tenses. The finite verb is the auxiliary, so the two parts surround it and the participle comes after pas: Je n'ai pas compris. Elle n'est pas venue. Short adverbs go after pas: Je n'ai pas encore mangé, Il n'a pas bien compris.

Infinitives. With an infinitive the two parts stand together before it and before its clitics: Il préfère ne pas répondre. Prière de ne pas le déranger. Je regrette de ne pas l'avoir vu. The older order with pas after the infinitive of être or avoir (n'être pas, ne l'avoir pas vu) survives in careful prose; it is correct but marked.

Inversion. The subject pronoun follows the verb and pas follows the subject pronoun: Ne viens-tu pas ? N'a-t-il pas déjà payé ? Ne le lui avez-vous pas dit ? (chapter 26).

The imperative. Ne and pas surround the verb and the object clitics go before it, as in a statement: Ne le fais pas ! Ne me parle pas ! (the positive imperative has the clitics after the verb: Fais-le !).

Modals and the infinitive. Negation can bear on the modal or on the infinitive: Je ne peux pas venir "I can't come" / Je peux ne pas venir "I may not come, I'm allowed not to"; Il ne doit pas partir "He mustn't leave" / Il doit ne pas partir (rare). Both can be negated: Je ne peux pas ne pas venir "I can't not come".

2. The negative words

Rien and personne behave differently in compound tenses: rien stands like an adverb between the auxiliary and the participle (Je n'ai rien vu), personne stays in the object position after the participle (Je n'ai vu personne). With an infinitive, rien precedes it (ne rien dire) and personne follows (ne voir personne).

Aucun is singular in the standard (Il n'a aucun ami) except with plural-only nouns (aucuns frais). Nul is formal and proverbial. Point is the literary or regional equivalent of pas (GSD has 3). Guère is formal (3 in GSD).

Frequencies. In GSD the second words that occur with Polarity=Neg (UD 2.18, 2026-11-06) are pas 1 034, plus 96, jamais 86; the negative pronouns and determiners are counted by form: jamais 90, rien 76, aucun 64, aucune 58, personne (as a pronoun) 18, nul 7.

3. Negative words as subjects, and in compound tenses

Personne, rien, aucun, nul can be the subject. They come first, ne still precedes the verb, and there is no pas:

Personne ne répond. — **Rien n'**a changé. — Aucun élève **n'**est venu. — **Nul n'**est censé ignorer la loi.

*Personne ne répond pas is ungrammatical in the standard: pas does not combine with the negative pronouns (§4).

4. Several negative words: negative concord

The negative words combine, with one ne, and the meaning stays a single negation:

Il ne dit jamais rien à personne. he NEG says never nothing to nobody — "He never says anything to anyone."

Je ne le verrai plus jamais. — "I'll never see him again."

**Personne n'**a rien dit. — "Nobody said anything."

This is negative concord. The order of several adverbs is fixed: plus jamais or jamais plus, jamais rien, plus rien, plus personne, jamais personne.

Pas is not a concord word. It does not combine with rien, personne, jamais, plus in the standard (*Il ne dit pas rien). When it does, in speech, the negation is truly double: % Il dit pas rien "He doesn't say nothing" = he says something. Pas un "not one" and pas de are standard.

Two readings with two negative words. A sentence with two potentially negative terms such as Personne n'a rien vu has a single-negation reading ("nobody saw anything") and, in a suitable context, a double-negation reading ("nobody saw nothing" = everybody saw something). A production study had twenty speakers say such sentences in contexts that called for one reading or the other and found that the two readings have different prosody: in the single-negation reading the first negative word is prominent and the second compressed, as if dependent on it; in the double-negation reading both are prominent and phrased separately, the subject in its own phrase (deprez-2022).

5. Negation without a verb: non, pas, si

In an answer or a fragment the second word alone is negative: — Qui est venu ? — Personne. — Tu en veux ? — Jamais de la vie ! — Pas moi.

Non is the negative answer and the negation of a phrase without a verb: — Tu viens ? — Non. Il est content, moi non. une solution non violente, non sans mal, non seulement … mais. In GSD non has Polarity=Neg 130 times. Pas replaces non before an adjective, an adverb, a pronoun and in the spoken language generally: pas toujours, pas du tout, pas moi, pas mal, pourquoi pas ?

Si answers a negative question positively (— Tu ne viens pas ? — Si !), where oui would sound wrong; it is also the embedded positive particle (Je crois que si; chapter 26, §8).

Sans carries a negation of its own: it takes de like a negation, or no article (sans argent, sans aucun doute), and the negative words without ne: sans rien dire, sans voir personne, sans jamais revenir.

6. Ne … que: restriction

Ne … que means "only". The sentence is positive. Que stands immediately before the phrase it restricts, wherever that is:

fr-ud-dev_01038 · UD French GSD Les américains ne les rejoindront que quatre ans plus tard avec le programme Mariner. the Americans NEG them will-join only four years more late with the programme Mariner — "The Americans would only join them four years later, with the Mariner programme."

Il ne boit que de l'eau. — "He drinks only water."

Because the sentence is positive, the article is not reduced to de (§8): *Il ne boit que **de l'*eau, not *que d'eau. Ne … que combines with the negative words: Il n'y a plus que lui "There's only him left". Ne … pas que is "not only": Il n'y a pas que ça "That's not all there is". The cleft ce n'est que … que restricts a whole phrase:

fr-ud-dev_01310 · UD French GSD Ce n'est qu'à l'issue de ce délai que l'ordonnance pourra être notifiée au prévenu. "Only once this period is over can the order be served on the accused."

The restriction cannot bear on the subject: Seul Paul est venu or Il n'y a que Paul qui est venu, not *Que Paul n'est venu. In GSD 196 sentences have ne with que as their only second word (2026-11-06), and que/qu' has Polarity=Neg 245 times. Speech, which drops ne, uses seulement or juste instead: % Il boit juste de l'eau; the bare que of % Il boit que de l'eau is also common.

7. Speech: ne dropped

In ordinary spoken French, in all regions and at all social levels, ne is mostly left out: % Je sais pas. Il vient plus. Y a personne. J'ai rien vu. The written standard keeps ne, and so do formal speech, broadcast news and reading aloud.

How often ne is present in a sentence with a negative word (UD 2.18, 2026-11-06; a negative word is pas, plus, jamais, rien, personne, aucun, guère, point, nul in their negative use):

The ParisStories narratives, told by young speakers of the Paris region, keep ne with one pas in eight; Rhapsodie, which includes interviews and more formal speech, with two in five; the written treebanks almost always. The written sentences without ne are mostly not omissions: non pas, pas du tout, pourquoi pas, pas encore without a verb.

Where ne is kept in speech. It is more often kept with negative pronoun subjects (personne ne sait, rien n'a changé), in set phrases (n'importe qui, ne serait-ce que, n'empêche que), in careful style and with ne … que, though in ParisStories even personne and rien appear without it more often than with it (3 of 9 and 9 of 26 with ne). Dropping ne is the norm of the spoken language, not a mistake.

8. De after negation

Under negation a direct object with the indefinite article (un, une, des) or the partitive (du, de la, des) takes de (d') instead:

J'ai un vélo. → Je n'ai pas de vélo. Il boit du vin. → Il ne boit pas de vin.

fr-ud-dev_00353 · UD French GSD La fille qui répond n'a pas de temps à nous consacrer et est impatiente. "The girl who answers has no time to give us and is impatient."

The rule holds for a direct object under pas, plus, jamais, guère, point (fraser-1921, §324: de alone "after a general negation, implying non-existence of the object"; the article returns when "the negation is no longer general", and in a negative question expecting the answer yes: N'avez-vous pas des amis ?). It does not hold:

• after être and the other copulas: Ce n'est pas un problème;
• with a definite article: Je n'aime pas le café;
• under ne … que, which is not negative (§6);
• when the negation bears on something else and the object exists: Je n'ai pas acheté une voiture, j'en ai acheté deux; Il n'a pas dit un mot "not a single word".

In GSD the noun objects of verbs (other than être) negated by pas, plus, jamais have de/d' as their first determiner or preposition 80 times and an indefinite un, une, des 31 times; the rest have a definite, possessive or demonstrative (2026-11-06). In UD this de is a det of the noun with Definite=Ind, not a preposition.

9. Expletive ne and ne alone

Expletive ne. In some subordinate clauses a ne appears without a second word and without negative meaning. The grammars call it ne explétif. It is optional, belongs to careful written style and is left out in speech (cledat-1894, §439):

• after verbs of fearing and avoiding: Je crains qu'il ne vienne "I'm afraid he may come"; Prends garde que cela ne se fasse; Empêchez qu'il ne sorte (fraser-1921, §269);
• after avant que, à moins que and, disputed, sans que: avant qu'il ne parte;
• after a comparative of inequality: Il est plus grand que je ne pensais; Il vaut mieux que, moins que vous ne croyez;
• after de peur que, de crainte que.

fr-ud-train_00181 · UD French GSD Cette technique fut reçue avec méfiance de par le monde, certains réalisateurs craignant que les dialogues ne détournent l'attention des spectateurs … "The technique was received with suspicion throughout the world, some directors fearing that dialogue would distract the audience's attention …"

fr-ud-train_06991 · UD French GSD Vittoria se précipite pour rejoindre son époux, mais la nouvelle de sa mort l'atteint avant qu'elle n'arrive. "Vittoria rushes to join her husband, but the news of his death reaches her before she arrives."

A negative fear needs the full negation: Je crains qu'il ne vienne pas "I'm afraid he won't come". The expletive ne after verbs of fearing continues the Latin nē of fear clauses (timeō nē veniat: la chapter 10, §4).

Apparent expletive pas in Québec. Québec French has a pas in relative clauses after superlatives and universal quantifiers that seems to have no negative force: C'est le plus beau blé qu'il y a pas sur le marché "It's the most beautiful wheat there is on the market". An analysis of these constructions argues that this pas is not a new kind of expletive but an ordinary negation of a silent comparative ("than there is not on the market"), which explains its effect of widening the domain of the superlative (labelle-2023).

Ne alone with negative force. In literary French ne without a second word still negates in a few contexts, which continue the Old French use of ne alone (brunot-1899, §484): with pouvoir, savoir, oser, cesser (Je ne peux le croire, Je ne sais que faire, Il n'ose répondre, Il ne cesse de parler), in set phrases (n'importe, qu'à cela ne tienne, à Dieu ne plaise, si ce n'est), after si in some conditions (Si je ne me trompe), after depuis que, il y a … que with a compound tense (Il y a un an que je ne l'ai vu), and in a relative after a negative main clause (Je ne vois personne qui ne vous admire).

fr-ud-dev_01045 · UD French GSD … les représentants britanniques ne pouvaient accéder librement aux habitations, … "… the British representatives could not freely enter the houses, …"

How frequent. In GSD 1 636 ne/n' occur in 16 342 sentences; 1 345 sentences with ne have a negative second word, 196 have only que (restriction), 15 only ni, and 80 have ne with none of these — the expletive ne, ne alone with pouvoir or savoir, and fixed phrases (n'importe quoi, n'est autre que: fr-ud-dev_00686, La longueur du module M n'est autre que sa longueur comme groupe à opérateurs) (2026-11-06).

10. Constituent negation and scope

The negation of ne … pas covers the clause; what it denies in particular is often only what is new or stressed: Il n'est pas venu en voiture (, il est venu à pied). The focus of negation is marked by stress, by a correction (pas … mais …), or by a cleft: Ce n'est pas Paul qui a dit ça.

Constituent negation without a verb uses non or pas: une victoire non méritée, pas toujours, pas du tout, non sans mal, and the affixes in-, im-, il-, ir-, dé-, dés-, mal-, non- (impossible, illégal, désordre, malhonnête, non-lieu). A study of negation detection in French biomedical texts lists the cues of negation as morphological (the prefixes a-, in-, dis-), lexical (absence de, à l'exception de) and grammatical (non, ne … pas, ni … ni), and reports cue detection with an F-measure up to 97% with CRF and BiLSTM taggers; the scope, the part of the sentence denied, is the harder task (dalloux-2019).

Negation and quantifiers. Tous les élèves ne sont pas venus is ambiguous in writing — "not all came" (the usual reading) or "none came" — and Tous ne sont pas venus means "not all". The unambiguous forms are Les élèves ne sont pas tous venus ("not all") and Aucun élève n'est venu ("none").

Negative raising. Je ne pense pas qu'il vienne is understood as "I think he won't come", with the subjunctive (chapter 24, §5); Je ne crois pas, Je ne veux pas que behave the same.

Litotes is a figure of the French classical style: Va, je ne te hais point "Go, I do not hate you" (= I love you); Ce n'est pas mal "It's quite good"; pas bête "clever".

11. Where it came from: ne, pas and the cycle

Latin non gave Old French nen, weakened to ne, which at first sufficed alone to negate a clause (brunot-1899, §484). To reinforce it, Old French added nouns naming very small things — pas "step", point "dot", mie "crumb", goutte "drop" — so that ne … pas first meant "not a step", the picture fading until the noun only marked the negation (brunot-1899, §485). By the 16th century the use of pas or point with ne was almost general, and the grammarians of the 17th century made it a rule: Corneille corrected a line with ne alone in 1660 (brunot-1899, §484). Spoken French then dropped ne, leaving pas as the negation. This sequence — a negator, reinforced, replaced by the reinforcer — is the cycle known since Jespersen; French is its textbook case. The negative pronouns rien (from Latin rem "thing") and personne ("person") went the same way: they meant "anything" and "anybody" in Old French and became negative by their constant use with ne.

12. The UD analysis

UD French marks negation on the words, not as a separate layer:

• ne/n' and the negative adverbs (pas, plus, jamais, point, guère) are ADV with Polarity=Neg, each attached to the predicate as advmod; in a compound tense to the participle (the head), not to the auxiliary;
• the que of ne … que is also ADV with Polarity=Neg and advmod, but it attaches to the phrase it restricts (in fr-ud-dev_01038 to tard), not to the verb;
• the negative pronouns rien, personne are PRON with PronType=Neg in their argument relation (nsubj, obj); aucun, nul are DET or PRON;
• non is ADV with Polarity=Neg (or INTJ as an answer).

The treebanks are not uniform: GSD marks jamais with Polarity=Neg, ParisStories and Rhapsodie with PronType=Neg and no Polarity (chapter 20, §8). The expletive ne is analysed exactly like the negative ne (advmod, Polarity=Neg): UD itself does not separate them. In GSD the words with Polarity=Neg are pas 1 034, n' 821, ne 811, que/qu' 245, non 130, plus 96, jamais 86.

13. How Mova handles it

What is done. en xpos-fill gives ne, pas, plus, jamais the tag RB and the parser learns their attachment from the French trees. Traces of the parser trained on the GSD training file (en explain, 12 epochs, beam 8, CPU, 2026-11-06):

The negation is learned well when ne is a separate word; it fails whenever n' is joined to the verb by the English tokenizer — that is, before every verb or auxiliary beginning with a vowel, which includes the auxiliary avoir (n'ai, n'a, n'avons) and être (n'est). Writing n' ai with a space does not help: the tokenizer then produces n, ', ai (tested 2026-11-06).

What is not done.

• The meaning of the two-part negation. Mova's frames reader (prag/src/frames.rs) takes negation from English words (not, n't, never, no). It does not know that ne … pas negates the frame, that ne … que does not, or that a lone pas, plus, jamais negates in speech. A French frame is never marked negative.
• Negative concord. Jamais rien à personne is one negation; nothing in Mova counts it as one.
• Expletive ne is not told from negative ne. In the trees both are advmod with Polarity=Neg; a rule would have to look at the governing word (craindre, avant que, a comparative) and at the missing second word.
• The de after negation is learned as a det of its noun; nothing checks it against the negation (*Il n'a pas des amis).

These are the first things a French frames reader needs, in that order.

14. Sources

• Brunot, Précis de grammaire historique de la langue française (1899), §§484–485 (the simple negation ne and the reinforced negation ne … pas, point, mie, goutte): brunot-1899.
• Clédat, Grammaire raisonnée de la langue française (1894), §439 (ne alone and expletive negation): cledat-1894.
• Fraser, Squair & Coleman, The New Fraser and Squair Complete French Grammar (1921), §269 (ne after prendre garde, éviter, empêcher), §324 (de alone): fraser-1921.
• Déprez & Yeaton, On the prosody of French ambiguous multiple negative sentences (Glossa, 2022): deprez-2022.
• Labelle, Apparent expletive negation, silent comparatives, and domain widening in Quebec French superlative and universal constructions (Glossa, 2023): labelle-2023.
• Dalloux, Claveau & Grabar, Speculation and negation detection in French biomedical corpora (RANLP 2019): dalloux-2019.
• UD French GSD, Sequoia, ParisStories, Rhapsodie, UD 2.18; sentences cited by sent_id; counts made with awk over the CoNLL-U files, 2026-11-06.
• Mova: en/src/main.rs (xpos_of, explain), en/src/gram.rs, prag/src/frames.rs.
• The full list is in Sources.

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