Standard Negation
In order to say that one did not do something, the ne … pas construction must be used. The ne is placed before the verb, while the pas is placed after.
Formation and Rules
- Simple negation is done by wrapping ne…pas around the verb.
- Je ne vole pas. – I do not steal.
- In a perfect tense, ne…pas wraps around the auxillary verb, not the participle.
- Je n’ai pas volé. – I have not stolen.
- When an infinitive and conjugated verb are together, ne…pas usually wraps around the conjugated verb.
- Je ne veux pas voler. – I do not want to steal.
- ne pas can also go directly in front of the infinitive for a different meaning.
- Je veux ne pas voler. – I want not to steal.
- ne goes before any pronoun relating to the verb it affects.
- Je ne le vole pas. – I am not stealing it.
Examples
French Grammar • Weather Negation Formation Examples  Exemples de formation de négation | |
|---|---|
| Il est avocat. Il n’est pas avocat. | He is [a] lawyer. He is not [a] lawyer. |
| Nous faisons nos devoirs. Nous ne faisons pas nos devoirs. | We are doing our homework. We are not doing our homework. |
| Je joue du piano. Je ne joue pas du piano. | I play the piano. I do not play the piano. |
| Vous vendez votre voiture. Vous ne vendez pas votre voiture. | You sell your car. You do not sell your car. |
Negation of Indefinite Articles
The indefinite articles un, une, and des change to de (or d’) when negating a sentence.
- J’ai un livre. – I have a book.
- Je n’ai pas de livre. – I don’t have any book.
- J’ai des livres. – I have some books.
- Je n’ai pas de livres. – I don’t have any books.
Examples
| Il est belge.. Il n’est pas belge. | He is Belgian. He is not Belgian. |
| Nous lisons un livre. Nous ne lisons pas de livre. | We read a book. We do not read a book. |
| Je mange une cerise. Je ne mange pas de cerise. | I eat a cherry. I do not eat a cherry. |
Contractions
Contractions have been discussed previously in the form of elision. They are a combination of two or more consecutive words that have been integrated into the language, for example, aujourd’hui.
A common contraction occurs with the words à (at) and de (from), when combined with the definite pronouns le and les. The definate pronoun la remains in full form.
- à + le = au
- à + les = aux
- de + le = du
- de + les = des
The contractions do not occur with the la, or with any contracted pronoun:
- à + la = à la
- à + l’ = à l’
- de + la = de la
- de + l’ = de l’
Weather – Le temps
| French Vocabulary • Weather Weather Le temps | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General | Cloudy Weather | ||
| le soleil | sun | le nuage Il y a des nuages. | cloud It’s cloudy. lit: There are some clouds. |
| le ciel | sky | nuageux(-euse) | cloudy |
| couvert(e)(s) | overcast, lit: covered | ||
| Warm Weather | l’éclaircie (f) | clearing, break (in clouds) | |
| Il fait beau | It’s nice. | Cold and Windy Weather | |
| Il fait chaud. | It’s warm. | Il fait froid. | It’s cold. |
| Le ciel est dégagé. Le ciel se dégage. | The sky is clear. lit: The sky is freed. The sky is clearing up. | le vent Il fait du vent. Le vent souffle. | wind It’s windy. The wind blows. |
| Le soleil brille. | The sun is shining. | la rafale | gust of wind |
| Rainy Weather | Snowy Weather | ||
| la brume | fog, haze, mist | l’hiver (m) | winter |
| le brouillard | fog | la neige Il neige. | snow It’s snowing. |
| la bruine | drizzle | la grêle Il tombe de la grêle. | hail It’s hailing. lit: It falls of the hail. |
| une goutte de pluie | a drop of rain | Extreme weather | |
| la pluie La pluie tombe. | rain The rain falls. | un orage orageux(-euse) Il y a un orage! | a storm stormy There’s a storm! |
| Il pleut. il a plu. Il va pleuvoir. | It’s raining. It rained. It’s going to rain. | l’éclair (m) la foudre | flash (of lightning) lightning |
| pluvieux(-euse) Le temps est pluvieux. | rainy It’s raining. lit: The weather is rainy. | la tempête | storm, tempest |
| de gros nuages noirs. | large black clouds | agité(e)(s) | stormy, agitated |
| l’averse (f) | downpour | le tonnerre | thunder |
Le temps means both the weather and the time.
Aller
The verb aller is translated to to go. It is irregularly conjugated (it does not count as a regular -er verb).
Formation
In the present indicative, aller is conjugated as follows:
| French Verb • Weather aller to go | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||||
| first person | je vais | jeuh vay | I go | nouszallons | nouzah lohn | we go |
| second person | tu vas | too vah | you go | vouszallez | vouzah lay | you go |
| third person | il va | eel vah | he goes | ils vont | eel vohn | they go (masc. or mixed) |
| elle va | ell vah | she goes | ||||
| on va | ohn vah | one goes | elles vont | ell vohn | they go (fem.) | |
Usage
There is no present progressive tense in French, so aller in the present indicative is used to express both I go and I am going.
Aller must be used with a place and cannot stand alone.
The preposition à, meaning in, at, or to, is used, followed by the place.
- Tu vas a l’école? – You’re going to school.
Remember that à le contracts to au and à les contracts to aux.
- Je vais au stade. – I’m going to the stadium.
Instead of a preposition and place, you can use the pronoun y, meaning there. Y comes before the verb. Remember that aller must be used with a place (there or a name) when indicating that you are going somewhere, even if a place wouldn’t normally be given in English.
- J’y vais. – I’m going there.
- Tu y vas. – You’re going there.
- Nous y allons. – We’re going there.
The negative form of aller with the y pronoun has both the verb and pronoun enclosed between ne and pas.
- Il n’y va pas. – He’s not going there.
Futur Proche
The structure aller + infinitive is used to say that something is going to happen in the near future.
- Il va pleuvoir demain. – It’s going to rain tomorrow.
- Il va faire froid. – It’s going to be cold.
Remember that the negative goes around the conjugated verb.
- Il ne va pas pleuvoir demain. – It’s not going to rain tomorrow.
Idioms
- Allons-y – ahlonzee – Let’s go! (impératif)
- Ça va? – How are you? (lit: It goes?)
- On y va! – Let’s get going!
- On y va? – Should we go?
Liaison
Usually, whenever a vowel sound comes after …ons or …ez, the usually unpronounced s and z change to a sharp z sound and link to the next syllable. (This process is called liaison.) However, since allons and allez begins with vowels, nous allons is pronounced nyoozahloh and vous allez is pronounced voozahlay. In order to have a pleasing and clean sound, two liaisons should not go consecutively. There is therefore no liaison in allons à when it comes right after nous and allez à when it comes after vous.
- In the phrase Vous allez à l’école?, vous allez à is pronounced vouzahlay ah.
- In the phrase vous et Marie allez à l’école?”, allez à is pronounced ahlayzah.