At A1 you learned ne… pas and its family. That gets you negation. This lesson gets you precision: how to say "only", how to negate with the restraint of formal writing, how to stack negatives, and what is really going on when a French speaker drops the ne entirely.
The most useful item in this lesson, and the one most often mistaken for a negation. Ne… que does not deny anything — it restricts.
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Je n'ai que dix euros. | zhuh nay kuh dee zuh-ROH | I only have ten euros. |
| Il ne boit que de l'eau. | eel nuh bwah kuh duh LOH | He only drinks water. |
| Elle n'arrive qu'Ă midi. | el nah-reev kah mee-DEE | She doesn't arrive until noon. |
| Je ne fais que passer. | zhuh nuh fay kuh pah-SAY | I'm only passing through. |
A real negation turns the article into de: Je n'ai pas de pain. But ne… que is not a negation, so the article survives intact: Je n'ai que du pain. Getting this right is a strong B2 signal.
Que sits immediately before whatever is being restricted — so moving it moves the meaning.
| French | What is restricted |
|---|---|
| Je ne bois que du thé le matin. | only tea (nothing else to drink) |
| Je ne bois du thé que le matin. | only in the morning (not later) |
| Seul Paul est venu. | only Paul (and nobody else) |
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| seulement | suhl-MAHN | only | neutral, very common |
| rien que | ree-en KUH | just, merely | emphatic |
| ne… pas que | nuh pah KUH | not only | spoken |
| Ă peine | ah PEN | barely, hardly | neutral |
| ne faire que | nuh fair KUH | to do nothing but | idiomatic |
These belong to careful writing and elevated speech. Recognise all of them; produce the first two.
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ne… guère | nuh GAIR | hardly, scarcely |
| ne… nullement | nuh nül-MAHN | not at all, in no way |
| ne… aucunement | nuh oh-kün-MAHN | in no way whatsoever |
| ne… point | nuh PWAN | not (literary/archaic) |
| nul ne / nul n'est | nĂĽl nuh | nobody (formal) |
Il n'est guère surprenant que… — "It is hardly surprising that…" is a genuinely useful B2 opener for an argued essay.
Unlike English, French lets you combine negative words freely — and they reinforce rather than cancel each other. There is a fixed order.
| French | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Je ne dis plus rien. | I'm not saying anything any more. |
| Il n'y a plus jamais personne. | There's never anyone any more. |
| Je n'ai plus rien Ă ajouter. | I have nothing further to add. |
| On ne voit jamais personne ici. | You never see anyone here. |
The order is roughly plus → jamais → rien / personne. What you cannot do is combine two of these with pas: ne pas rien is wrong. Pas steps aside when another negative word arrives.
The negative of et. Note what happens to the articles: indefinite and partitive articles disappear; definite articles and possessives stay.
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
| Je veux du thé et du café. | Je ne veux ni thé ni café. |
| J'aime le thé et le café. | Je n'aime ni le thé ni le café. |
| Il est riche et généreux. | Il n'est ni riche ni généreux. |
| Paul et Marie sont venus. | Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont venus. |
Related and very common: non plus is the negative of aussi. — Je n'aime pas ça. — Moi non plus. Never moi aussi after a negative.
Here French is simpler than you would expect: both negative words sit together, in front of the infinitive.
| French | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Je te demande de ne pas partir. | I'm asking you not to leave. |
| Il préfère ne rien dire. | He'd rather not say anything. |
| Essayer de ne plus fumer. | To try not to smoke any more. |
| Ne pas se pencher au dehors. | Do not lean out. (sign) |
Compare the conjugated verb, where the two halves split around it: Je ne pars pas. With an infinitive they never split.
Sans is already negative, so it never takes ne or pas, and it pulls the other negative words toward it.
sans rien dire (without saying anything) · sans jamais se plaindre (without ever complaining) · sans personne (without anyone) · sans aucun doute (without any doubt).
In spoken French, the ne is dropped constantly. This is not sloppiness by a few speakers — it is the normal spoken register, used by everyone including the highly educated.
| Written | Spoken | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Je ne sais pas. | J'sais pas. | shay PAH |
| Ce n'est pas grave. | C'est pas grave. | say pah GRAHV |
| Il n'y a personne. | Y'a personne. | yah pair-SON |
| Je n'en veux plus. | J'en veux plus. | zhahn vuh PLĂś |
Dropping ne in a DELF written paper, an email or an essay costs you marks. Keeping it in casual conversation makes you sound like a textbook. The B2 skill is knowing which room you are in — which is exactly what Lesson 16 is about.
Ne-dropping is near-universal in casual speech, but it returns in formal registers, on the radio and in lectures. Note the treacherous ambiguity of spoken plus: J'en veux plus can mean "I want more" (pronounced "plĂĽss") or "I don't want any more" (pronounced "plĂĽ"). The final s carries the whole meaning.
Ne-dropping is if anything even more complete in Québécois speech. The distinctive local negative is pantoute (from pas en tout), meaning "not at all": J'ai pas aimé ça pantoute. You will also hear rien que used very freely for "only" — Rien qu'à voir, on voit bien, a well-known Québécois saying meaning "you can tell at a glance".
Fill in the missing half of the restriction.
Write négation or restriction.
Put both negative words together in front of the infinitive.
1. Why is Je n'ai que du pain correct, rather than que de pain?
2. Je ne bois du thé que le matin means:
3. How do you negate an infinitive?