Negation – Free Exercise

show special characters
display incorrect answers

Exercise

Choose the correct form of negation.

  1. - Que penses-tu de cette robe?
    - Elle me plaît .verb negation → ne … pas—What do you think of this dress?
    —I don’t like it.
  2. Sylvie est étonnée, elle avait vu un homme aussi grand.never → ne … jamaisSylvie is surprised, she’s never seen such a tall man before.
  3. Il y a dans la maison.no one → ne … personne
    before a vowel, ne becomes n’    No one is at home.
  4. Émilie aime les bonbons.verb negation → ne … pas
    before a vowel, ne becomes n’    Émilie doesn’t like sweets.
  5. Émilie aime bonbon.any as negative → ne … aucun
    before a vowel, ne becomes n’    Émilie doesn’t like any sweets.
  6. Tu parles trop vite, je comprends .nothing/not anything → ne … rienYou talk too fast, I can’t understand anything.

Turn the positive sentences into negative sentences by negating the underlined part of the sentence.

ne… pas (2x), ne… jamais, ne… plus, ne… aucun (optional)

  1. Ma sœur chante bien.
    →  . the verb comes between ne and pasMy sister sings well.
    → My sister can’t sing well.
  2. L’arbre a encore des feuilles.
    →  . encore is replaced with the negative form ne … plus
    use the partitive article de after the negation → l’arbre n’a plus de feuilles (and not des feuilles)    The tree still has some leaves.
    → The tree has no more leaves.
  3. Le gardien est toujours là.
    →  . in combination with the adverb ne, jamais is the negation of toujoursThe guard is always there.
    → The guard is never there.
  4. J’ai une amie.
    →  . any in a negative sense is translated as ne … pas de/d’ or ne … aucunI have a girlfriend/female friend.
    → I don’t have a girlfriend.
    or: I don’t have a single (female) friend.
  5. Tu ris gaiement.
    →  . the verb comes between ne and pasYou’re laughing happily.
    → You’re not laughing happily.