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Two verbs

In the two verbs, for example the perfect tense, the 'ne...pas' or other negatives go around the first verb.

Tenses that use 'avoir' or 'être'

Tenses that use 'avoir' or 'être'

  • For tenses that use 'avoir' or 'être' then a past participle, the negative goes around the conjugated part of 'avoir' or 'être'.
    • Je n'ai pas mangé - I did not eat.
    • Je n'étais pas allé - I did not go.
Two verbs

Two verbs

  • When there are two verbs, the negative clause goes around the first verb.
    • Je n'aime pas faire de la natation - I do not like to swim.
    • Je ne veux pas aller à l'école - I do not want to go to school.

Infinitives

To make an infinitive negative, you put the negative (e.g. 'ne pas') before the infinitive. This is only when the negative refers to the infinitive.

Ne pas

Ne pas

  • Je préfère ne pas parler de la méteo.
    • I prefer to not speak about the weather.
    • Here the negative refers to speak.
Other negatives

Other negatives

  • J'aime ne rien faire.
    • I like to do nothing.
    • Here the negative refers to 'faire'.
  • Il était heureux de ne plus avoir besoin d'aller à l'école.
    • He was happy that he no longer needed to go to school.
    • Here, the negative refers to 'needing to'.
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Everyday Activities

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Personal & Social Life

3

The World Around Us

4

The World of Work

5

The International World

6

Common Tenses

7

Advanced Tenses

8

Extra Grammar

8.1

Articles

8.2

The Passive Voice

8.3

Pronouns

8.4

Asking Questions

8.5

Nouns

8.6

Prepositions

8.7

Adverbs

8.8

Adjectives

8.9

Negative

8.10

Conjunctions

8.11

Miscellaneous

8.12

Verbs

8.13

Numbers

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