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Discussion: Question about positioning

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166259

Question about positioning
Sorry to all you French speakers who'll no doubt think what a fool Iam but I need help with my positioning of "pas"!

C'est ne pas vrai/ ne pas juste.

Ne l'accepter pas.
Ne comprends pas.

Why is it that "ne" and "pas" are sometimes placed on either side of a word and at others they're directly after eachother. Also,why is there sometimes no need for the "ne". e.g
Pas important

Thanks to anyone that can help!

Language pair: French; All

Louise
Mulhall
January 13, 2010

166379

Re:Question about positioning
"Ne" and "pas" are the two parts of the negation in french, as you probably know.

Je ne mange pas de viande
Je n'aime pas faire mes devoirs

The two sentences you wrote are not right.
We say

Ce n'est pas juste
Ce n'est pas important.

As you see "ne" can become "n'" when the next word begins with a vowel.

In some orders that you can see in indications they can follow each other, but in all other tenses the verb is between.

Ne pas déranger, even if the correct form would be Ne dérangez pas

This is for correct french, but in the french we talk (and we sometimes write on the internet), we very often delete the "ne"

J'aime pas la viande
Je vais pas à cette soirée ce soir

It's a mistake

I hope I help you, to conclude I just want to precise that I am not sure about the rules or the exceptions that maybe exist, I just tell you how I know from the french I use... !

Language pair: French; All
This is a reply to message # 166259

Manou
January 15, 2010

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