Negatives

Question 1

I have never really thought about that

Answer 1

Je n’ai jamais vraiment pensé à ça

Question 2

He likes neither coffee nor tea

Answer 2

Il n’aime ni le café ni le thé

‘Ne’ preceded the verb and ni precedes each noun.
There is no need for ‘et’ to combine the two nouns (same as with “neither coffee nor tea”)

Question 3

He sells neither beer nor wine

Answer 3

Il ne vend ni bière ni vin

When the noun takes ‘de’ you lose this indefinite article

Question 4

They don’t have any milk left

They don’t have any (of it) left

Answer 4

Ils n’ont plus de lait

Ils n’en ont plus

(Always use ‘de’ when it’s a negative)

Question 5

There is nobody here

Answer 5

Il n’y a personne ici

Question 6

We didn’t buy any clothes / we bought no clothes

We didn’t buy anything

Answer 6

On n’a acheté pas de vêtement / On n’a acheté aucun vêtement

On n’a rien acheté

Note:

• aucune means ‘none’, ‘no’ or ‘any’ and is followed by a noun
• rien means ‘nothing’ or ‘anything’ and is not followed by a noun (may be followed by a verb)

Question 7

You don’t want another beer?

- Yes, I do

Answer 7

Tu veux pas une autre bière ?

Si

Question 8

I do not like jazz.

- me neither

Answer 8

Je n’aime pas le jazz
- Moi non plus

Note: as this is a negative, we do not pronounce the ‘s’ sound of plus (= ploo)

Question 9

a) I do not want any more of it

b) I (do) want some more of it

Answer 9

a) Je n’en veux plus (silent ‘s’ = “ploo”)

Note: In spoken French, drop ‘ne’ - j’en veux plus

b) J’en veux plus (pronounce ‘s’ = “ploos”)