French for Reading Knowledge

Chapter 05

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Commentary §§33-37

§§33-35. The Negative

French has a very odd way of forming the negative, since it requires not one word, but two, which go on either side of the main verb: ne VERBE pas.

• Je ne suis pas professeur. (I am not a teacher.)

Originally, the ne (from unstressed Latin non) was the real negative sign, and the second particle was a mere reinforcer; but things have gotten to such a point that the second particle is now the more important of the two. In colloquial French, the ne can often be left out.

1. Negative adverbs

Four of these “second” particles are adverbs. They normally go immediately after the main (conjugated, personal) verb. In a “compound”-tense verb, the first verb (avoir or être) is the main/conjugated/personal verb.

• Je parle à ma tante. → Je ne parle pas à ma tante. (simple verb. parle is the personal verb.)
• J’ai parlé à ma tante. → Je n‘ai pas parlé à ma tante. (compound verb. ai is the personal verb.)

Meanwhile, the ne particle goes in front of the main verb, but also in front of any pronoun objects that end up in front of the main verb (this is the main place for them).

• On ne vous hait point. (One doesn’t hate you.)

These four negative adverbs are:

• pas. The most ordinary negative. Can be strengthened by an added du tout (at all).
  • Je ne l’aime pas. Je ne l’aime pas du tout. (I don’t like him. I don’t like him at all.)
    
    A stronger substitute for pas is point. It does not however always call for a stronger translation: Je ne le connais point. (I don’t know him.)
• plus = “no more” or “no longer”
• jamais = “never”
• guère = “scarcely, hardly.” Not to be confused with la guerre = “war.”

Another important thing about these four negative adverbs: they have an odd effect on a following partitive or indefinite article, changing the article to a simple “de.”

• Nous avons encore du vin. Nous n‘avons plus de vin. (We still have wine, we have more wine. We don’t have any more wine.)
• J’ai une auto. Je n‘ai pas d‘auto. (I have a car. I don’t have a car.)

2. Negative Pronouns & Negative Adjectives

The negative pronouns are rien, personne. The negative adjectives are aucun(e), nul(le).

These four negative particles can go wherever a noun needs to go in a sentence; so, not only in the direct-object position, after the verb–

• Je ne vois rien. (I see nothing = I don’t see anything.)
• Je ne vois personne. (I see no one = I don’t see anyone.)
• Je ne vois nul homme. (I see no [= not a single] man = I don’t see any man.)
• Je ne vois aucun homme. (Ditto.)

but also in the subject position–

• Rien ne m’intéresse. (Nothing interests me.)
• Personne ne m’aime. (Nobody loves me.)
• Aucun de mes amis ne m’a téléphone. (None of my friends called me.)
• Nul effort ne vous sauvera. (No effort will save you.)

and as object of a preposition–

• Je ne parle à personne. (I’m speaking to no one = I’m not speaking to anyone.)
• Je ne pense à rien. (I’m thinking of nothing = I’m not thinking of anything.)
• Je ne m’occupe d’aucun problème. (I’m not taking care of any problem.)

Note that the ne stays in its usual place in front of the verb.

3. Negative Conjunction

The negative conjunction is ni…ni (neither…nor).

§36. Ne…que

This is one of the many possible functions of que, all of which you will eventually need to be handy with. What the Author says here is true, namely, that if a sentence has a ne, but not any other negative particle following, and if you then come across a que, chances are you are dealing with a ne…que construction.

What I like to say about the que of ne…que is that it excludes from the negative everything that follows it. The negative introduced by ne is in force in the sentence, up until the que. It is therefore similar to the way we use “but/save/except”:

• Il n’existe que trois manières d’entrer dans le Pays de Gorre. (There exist but three means of entry into the Land of Gorre.)
• Il n’y a qu’un seul moyen de nous sauver. (There is but one way to save us. There is no way to save us, save one. There is no way to save us, except one.)

But the French use the ne…que construction much more frequently than we do our “but/save/except”. Most of the time, in translating, you should simply 1) forget about the “ne”; 2) translate the que as “only,” and put the “only” in the English where the que was in the French, to avoid mistranslations.

• Je ne prends le petit déjeuner que le lundi. (I eat breakfast only on Mondays.)
• Je ne prends que le petit déjeuner le lundi. (I eat only breakfast on Mondays.)

French will sometimes also use the adverb seulement. The following sentences have exactly the same meaning:

• Il n’a que trois fils. Il a seulement trois fils. (He has only three sons.)

§37. Irregular verb tenir

Learn the pronunciation of this verb. It has three “stems” in the present. The singular forms sound one way; the nous and vous forms have another stem, and the ils/elles form has a third stem.

tiens	[tjɛ̃]
tiens	[tjɛ̃]
tient	[tjɛ̃]
tenons	[tənõ]
tenez	[təne]
tiennent	[tjɛn]

To hear it, try this YouTube clip, or this mp3 file (from Français interactif) for the very similar-sounding verb venir:

Though the Author has not introduced either the future or the past definite tense, he gives you the 3rd-person forms of these tenses for tenir.

Learn this verb and its derivatives on p47.

Exercises

A. p47

When no context is provided, the decision whether to translate an action verb with simple present or present progressive depends on what you imagine the likely context for the verb to be, a matter on which disagreement can occur.

1. they are measuring / they are not measuring / they never measure

2. they are / they are not / they are scarcely / they are never

3. She is studying. / She is not studying. / She is not studying any more = She is no longer studying. / She does nothing but study (= All she does is study = She only studies.)

4. he has / he does not have / He has nothing (= He doesn’t have anything). / He has only three specimens (samples).

5. they have / they don’t have / They have nothing (= They don’t have anything). / They have no program (= They don’t have any program).

6. He is studying. / He scarcely studies. / She never studies. / Normally she studies only computer science.

7. he (it) holds (is holding) / he (it) doesn’t hold (isn’t holding) / He (it) holds nothing (= doesn’t hold anything). / He (it) will scarcely hold (idiomatically: He/It will scarcely hold out, hold up, last).

8. they obtain (are obtaining) / they never obtain / They will obtain nothing (= They won’t obtain anything).

9. he entertains OR he/it maintains, keeps up / He isn’t entertaining anything OR It isn’t keeping anything up. / He is entertaining only one single hypothesis.

10. he is preparing / He is not preparing for his exam.¹ / They are not preparing anything.

11. They are not preparing any experiment. / They are preparing only a compiling program.

12. There are none but good students in the class (= There are only good students in the class). / They do nothing but work.

13. These trains do not transport freight. / They transport only passengers.

14. This train transports only passengers between Paris and Nice. / These trucks contain only boxes.

15. This event does not happen often. / It happens usually only after vacation.

16. The supersonic airplane is not arriving before six o’clock. / It never arrives late.

17. The students are finishing their homework. / They are finishing only a part of their homework.

18. George never finishes. / He never finishes anything.

19. He insists on studying. / Paul insists on never studying.

20. We insist on making a lot of money (We really want to, We are eager to…). / This man is poor: he has no money (= he doesn’t have any money). / He has neither money nor a home.

21. There is a good method. / There is only a single effective method. / He has no method (= He doesn’t have any method.)

22. There remains a complication (…one complication). / There remains only a single complication.

23. It may be that Robert will arrive² tomorrow. / It is impossible that he should (that he will) arrive² on time.

24. The Louvre is located (is found; is) in Paris. / It is not located in London. / Jean-Paul insists on seeing this museum.

25. This professor scarcely speaks of his chemical experiments. / He refuses to discuss the subject (? = He insists on not discussing…)

26. Nitrogen supports neither combustion nor respiration.

27. The young princess is not guilty of a crime, but not a single knight is going down to the lists for her.

B. p48

Again, I leave to you whether to underline and put into parentheses the way the Author enjoins you to do.

28. There is no (There isn’t any) radioactive substance in this material.

29. There is nothing important (There isn’t anything important) in this article.

30. It’s a matter of a new economic theory; it’s not a matter of an atomic bomb.

31. There remains only one simple but interesting case.

32. Sometimes the North Sea is completely calm and placid; consequently there aren’t any waves.

33. We have noticed no (We haven’t noticed any) difference of structure (structural difference?).

34. His experiment / contains / includes / only two parts.

35. There are only two parts that it is necessary to study at the beginning.

36. Ordinarily one praises only in order to be praised. (La Rochefoucauld!)

37. Often the mercy of princes is only (nothing but) a policy to win the affection of the masses.

38. The love of justice is only the fear of suffering injustice.

39. The love of justice is, in most human beans, only the fear of suffering injustice.

40. He is asking only for the favor of which he spoke (has spoken).

41. Man no longer concerns himself with the impenetrable essence(s) of things.

42. But it is only in the 17th century that the revolution is accomplished and triumphs with Kepler, Bacon, and Descartes.

43. Pierre Fermat, who was the most powerful mathematical mind of his time, didn’t publish anything (published nothing).

44. He agrees (allows, admits) that instinct can be a guide in this matter, but that isn’t sufficient.

45. They are no longer building (any) good concert halls; you can manage to do that only through a very serious study of acoustics.

46. Haydn wrote 18 symphonies; the complete collection, in very exact copies, is in the library of our Conservatory.

47. Many of them are mere divertissements (entertainments), written on a day-by-day basis for the little concerts of Prince Esterhazy.

Readings

Gravity p49

[48] Attraction or gravity.—From Kepler’s first law one can deduce (there can be deduced) the existence of a force directed towards the center of the sun. [49] The law of elliptical movement, or the expression of the speed deduced from this law, shows that the intensity of this force varies according to the distance from (to) the sun. [50] The intensity of the force known as gravity varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the sun. [51] Finally, Kepler’s third law shows that, at an equal distance from the sun, the intensity of the driving force is proportional to the mass of each planet and independent of the particular nature of this planet. [52] All bodies in nature attract each other in direct proportion to the square of the distance (between them). [53] But celestial bodies act on each other and on the sun itself, and from these differing attractions perturbations result. [54] The study of these forces is called celestial mechanics, an important part of astronomy; it is the study of the theory of the movements of stars (heavenly bodies).

Mathematics p50

[55] This science has as its object (The object of this science is) size insofar as it is measurable or calculable. [56] Elementary mathematics is the part of mathematics that includes arithmetic or other basic ideas of this science. [57] Algebra, higher algebra³, and geometry are classified as parts of pure mathematics, that is, mathematics dealing with size in an abstract way.

[58] The science of applied mathematics includes mechanics and astronomy, which consider the properties of size in certain bodies or subjects.

[59] “Quantity” and “size” are terms used to refer to whatever (everything that) can be increased or decreased. The lengths, surfaces, volumes of bodies, etc., are quantities.

[60] Arithmetic is the science of numbers, while algebra has the purpose⁴ of generalizing and shortening (simplifying?) the solving of questions about quantities in general. [61] Geometry is a science with the purpose⁵ of measuring size (extension), the three dimensions of which are length, width, and depth. [62] Lastly, there is infinitesimal calculus (integral calculus and differential calculus) which aids in the study⁶ of the variation of functions.

The Practical Mind of the Americans (Chateaubriand) p50

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was a principal French romantic writer of the early 19th century. In 1791, when he was in his early 20s, he spent a brief period traveling in the U.S. (less than six months), which sufficed to make him an authority on the place and its peoples.

[63] One must not look in the United States for what distinguishes man from the other beings of creation, for what is his essence of immortality and the ornament of his days. [64] Literature is unknown in the new republic. [65] The American has replaced the intellectual operations with the positive⁷ operations; do not impute to an inferiority on his part [lui] his mediocrity in the arts, for it is not on this side that he has directed his attention. [66] Cast through various reasons onto an uninhabited soil, agriculture and trade have been his sole concerns.⁸ [67] Before thinking, one must live; before planting trees, one must chop them down in order to plow the earth.

[68] In the new continent there is neither classical literature, nor romantic literature, nor native literature; [69] there is no classical literature, because⁹ (the) Americans have no models; there is no romantic literature, because the Americans have no Middle Ages; as for native literature, the Americans despise the savages and are horrified by the woods as by a prison.

[70] What one finds in America is applied literature, serving the diverse uses of society. [71] (The) Americans have scarcely any success save in mechanics and the sciences, because the sciences have a material side. [72] Franklin and Fulton took hold of lightning and steam for the advantage of men. [73] It fell to America to endow the world with the discovery thanks to which no continent henceforth may escape the incursions of the navigator.

1. The French “prepare an exam,” whereas we English-speakers prepare for an exam.[↩]
2. The verb arrive in this sentence is in the subjunctive mood.[↩][↩]
3. Literally, “high algebra.”[↩]
4. Literally, a pour but = “has for (its) end.”[↩]
5. Literally, qui a pour but = “which has for (its) end.”[↩]
6. qui sert à étudier = more literally “which serves to study (in studying).”[↩]
7. “Positive” is here contrasted with “intellectual,” and so means something like “practical” or “pragmatic.”[↩]
8. Literally, “the object of his cares.”[↩]
9. Or, closer to the French: “as for classical literature, the Americans have no models.”[↩]