To make a sentence negative in French, just add the words ne... pas /n(ə) pa/ on both sides of the verb.
| Je suis heureuse . | /ʒə sɥiz‿øʁøz/ | I (female) am happy. |
| Je ne suis pas heureuse . | /ʒə n sɥi paz‿øʁøz/ | I am not happy. |
If the verb begins with a vowel sound, then ne is shortened to n':
| Elle aime le hockey. | / / | She likes hockey. |
| Elle n'aime pas le hockey. | / / | She doesn't like hockey. |
If the French verb has two parts (such as a pris took), put ne... pas around the first word only, in this case a.
| Elle a pris le livre. | /ɛl a pʁi lə livʁ/ | She took the book. |
| Elle n'a pas pris le livre. | /ɛl na pa pʁi lə livʁ/ | She didn't take the book. |
In informal contexts, it is common to drop ne and to simply use pas alone.
| Je l'aime. | /ʒlɛm/ | I love her. |
| Je l'aime pas. | /ʒlɛm pa/ | I don't love her. |
If an object pronoun (like m' me) appears before the verb, then include it after ne. Similarly, in questions where the pronoun and verb are switched around and connected with a hyphen, put pas at the end of these two (rather than immediately after the verb). Have a look:
| M'as-tu dit que tu venais? | /ma ty di kə ty vnɛ/ | Did you tell me you were coming? |
| Ne m'as-tu pas dit que tu venais? | /nə ma ty pa di kə ty vnɛ/ | Didn't you tell me you were coming? |
When there is an indefinite article in a negative construction, it changes to de (or d'). This can sometimes be translated with the word any. This is called the partitive.
| J'ai un dictionnaire. | /ʒe œ̃ diksjɔnɛʁ/ | I have a dictionnary. |
| Je n'ai pas de dictionnaire. | /ʒne pa də diksjɔnɛʁ/ | I don't have a dictonary. |
| Jean mange des pommes. | /ʒɑ̃ mɑ̃ʒ de pɔm/ | Jean is eating apples. |
| Jean ne mange pas de pommes. | /ʒɑ̃ nə mɑ̃ʒ pa də pɔm/ | Jean isn't eating any apples. |
| Il a des amis. | /il a de zami/ | He has friends. |
| Il n'a pas d'amis. | /il na pa dami/ | He has no friends. |
Pronunciation: /a/ /ɑ̃/ /b/ /d/ /e/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /ɛ̃/ /f/ /g/ /i/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ɲ/ /ŋ/ /o/ /ɔ/ /ɔ̃/ /ø/ /œ/ /œ̃/ /p/ /ʁ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /t/ /u/ /ɥ/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /ʒ/ more...
List of abbreviations used
Phonetic font: Lucida Sans Unicode
