Extended negation: jamais, plus, rien and personne

Kurz erklärt

French can replace pas with a more specific negative word. Ne … jamais means ‘never,’ ne … plus means ‘no longer’ or ‘not anymore,’ ne … rien means ‘nothing’ or ‘not anything,’ and ne … personne means ‘nobody’ or ‘not anybody.’ In standard written French, ne (or n’ before a vowel sound) remains part of each expression.

Bildung

Subject + ne/n’ + conjugated verb + jamais/plus/rien/personne. With a compound tense, jamais, plus, and rien normally follow the auxiliary, while personne follows the past participle. As subjects, use Rien ne … or Personne ne …

Verwendung

• Use jamais to say that something never happens.
• Use plus when something used to happen but does not happen now.
• Use rien for things and personne for people.
• When rien or personne is the subject, it comes before ne and the verb.

Beispiele

• Je ne prends jamais le bus. — I never take the bus.
• Nous n’habitons plus ici. — We don’t live here anymore.
• Elle n’a rien acheté. — She didn’t buy anything.
• Personne ne connaît la réponse. — Nobody knows the answer.

Typischer Fehler

❌ Je ne vois pas personne.

✅ Je ne vois personne.

Do not keep pas when personne already supplies the negative meaning.

Merke

These words normally replace pas; they do not follow it. Rien refers to things, while personne refers to people.