Verb drill
Spoken French without ne: understand it, then restore it
Turn je viens pas and j’ai rien compris into careful written French. Eight sentence transformations, a conversation and a short meaning check.
- A2
- 8 answers
- Checked all at once
- Accents count
- Learn this in the A2 notebook →
In short
In everyday conversation, French speakers often leave out ne: je ne viens pas becomes je viens pas. The negative word stays. For careful written French, put back ne or n’ and keep the original meaning: j’ai rien compris → je n’ai rien compris.
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Rewrite each conversational sentence in full. Keep the same subject, tense and negative word. Include the final full stop. In the first part, add ne before the verb; in the second, use n’ before a vowel. Straight and curly apostrophes are accepted.
1 · Add ne: keep the negative word
- Je viens pas ce soir. → (Write the full sentence)
- Tu travailles jamais le dimanche. → (Write the full sentence)
- Je le vois pas. → (Keep the object pronoun)
- Personne répond. → (Keep personne as the subject)
2 · Add n’: watch the auxiliary
- J’ai pas compris. → (Write the full sentence)
- J’ai rien compris. → (Keep rien)
- Elle a vu personne. → (Keep personne after vu)
- On est pas prêts. → (On refers to a group of men)
Why do French speakers drop ne?
| Conversational French | Careful written French | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Je viens pas. | Je ne viens pas. | I’m not coming. |
| Je viens jamais. | Je ne viens jamais. | I never come. |
| J’ai rien compris. | Je n’ai rien compris. | I didn’t understand anything. |
| J’ai vu personne. | Je n’ai vu personne. | I didn’t see anyone. |
With a compound tense, ne goes before the auxiliary: je n’ai. Pas and rien go before the past participle in these examples; personne goes after it. With an object pronoun, write je ne le vois pas: the pronoun stays next to the verb.
- Léa
Tu as compris la dernière question ?
Did you understand the last question?
- Marc
Non, j’ai pas compris. Tu peux répéter ?
No, I didn’t understand. Can you repeat it?
- Léa
Il faut écrire deux phrases.
You need to write two sentences.
- Marc
D’accord. Je savais pas combien il en fallait.
OK. I didn’t know how many were needed.
Marc keeps the negative meaning with pas. In a written account, his replies become je n’ai pas compris and je ne savais pas. You can understand a casual reply and still choose the full form in an email or a written exercise.
— Tu travailles encore ici ? — Non, je travaille plus ici depuis janvier.
“Do you still work here?” “No, I haven’t worked here since January.”
Here encore, non and depuis janvier establish “no longer”. The full form is Je ne travaille plus ici depuis janvier.
Keep the whole exchange in view with plus: it can also mean “more”. A phrase such as je travaille plus needs context. For this drill, follow the stated meaning and restore the negative expression already present.