Negation – Free Exercise

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Exercise A1

Choose the correct form of negation.

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

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.
    →   [My sister can’t sing well.]|The predicate comes between ne and pas.
  2. L’arbre a encore des feuilles.
    →   [The tree has no more leaves.]|Encore is replaced with the negative form ne … plus.|We use the partitive article de after the negation → l’arbre n’a plus de feuilles (and not des feuilles).
  3. Le gardien est toujours là.
    →   [The guard is never there.]|In combination with the adverb ne, jamais is the negation of toujours.
  4. J’ai une amie.
    →   [I don’t have a girlfriend.|I don’t have a single (female) friend.]|Any in a negative sense is translated as ne … pas de/d’ or ne … aucun.
  5. Tu ris gaiement.
    →   [You’re not laughing happily.]|The predicate comes between ne and pas.