French Language > Negative

Ne Without Pas

We are talking about when ne appears without pas and without any other second negative particle (plus, jamais, etc.), and even without the que that excludes from negation.

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I. Ne Without Pas, Yet Having Full Negative Force

A. Four Verbs Can Be Negatived With Ne Alone

• cesser
• oser
• pouvoir
• savoir

or…COPS. It is a highly literary, not to say affected, usage.

Examples:

• Il ne cesse de m’en rebattre les oreilles. (He doesn’t stop talking continuously about it to me.)  ¹
• Je n’ose lui dire la vérité. (I don’t dare tell hurrim the truth.)
• Nous ne pouvons mériter le salut par nos propres efforts. (We cannot deserve salvation by means of our own efforts.)
• « M’accompagneras-tu au bal? –Je ne le puis. » (“Will you go with me to the ball?” “I cannot.”)
• Je ne sais si on vous a mis au courant de ce qui se passe. (I don’t know if you have been informed about what is happening.)
• Imaginary alexandrine:
  

  A. Qu’as-tu fait? (What hast thou done?)

  B. Je ne sais. (I know not.)

  A. Dis-le-moi! (Tell thou me!)

  B. Je ne puis! (I can not!)

B. Two Special Cases of Ne Savoir Without Pas

1. The Je-ne-sais-q–– Indefinite Expressions

These are humanist calques of the corresponding Latin expressions nescio q—.

• (un) je ne sais quoi (< Latin nescio quid)

This an indefinite pronoun meaning “a certain indefinable something.” You can make a number of other indefinite expressions by combining je ne sais and a question word:

• je ne sais où (< Latin nescio ubi)
• je ne sais quand (< Latin nescio quando)
• je ne sais qui (< Latin nescio quis)
• je ne sais quel (+ noun) (< Latin nescio qual-…)

Ëtant donné qu’il va se passer je ne sais quoi je ne sais quand, quelles dispositions prenez-vous?
Given that I-don’t-know-what is going to happen I-don’t-know-when, what are you going to do about it? –Jean Tardieu, Petits problèmes en prose

2. The special construction ne + savoir in the conditional

Examples:

• On ne saurait nier l’efficacité de ces remèdes. (One couldn’t possibly [One could never] deny the efficacy of these remedies.)
• Nul ne saurait exprimer mieux que Proust l’instabilité de nos états internes. (No one could possibly express better than Proust the instability of our internal states.)
• Nous ne saurions trop louer les efforts de ces patriotes. (We couldn’t possibly praise enough the efforts of these patriots.)
• Les Russes ne sauraient envahir l’Afghanistan en un pareil moment. (The Russians couldn’t possibly invade Afg. at such a moment. OR: It’s inconceivable that the Russians should… OR: It would never enter into the Russians’ minds to…)
• Je suis le seul objet qu’il ne saurait souffrir. (I am the only person he couldn’t possibly stomach.) – Racine, Phèdre 4.5.1212
• Il ne saurait donc être objet de science. (It couldn’t possibly, then, be an object of scientific study.) – Edmond Faral

C. In the condition (the if-clause) of a conditional sentence

This usage is very elegant!

• Si le grain ne meurt, il reste seul. ² (If the seed die not, it remains solitary.)
• Si je ne m’abuse. (If memory serves.)

D. N’importe expressions

Coming down to us from the time when a simple ne sufficed for negation and when personal verbs could stand on their own, without a noun or pronoun subject, we have the fixed expression:

–or, as it might be in modern French: Cela n’importe pas (That doesn’t matter). A variant, with the same meaning, is:

N’importe can also be combined with interrogative words, rather like je ne sais, to form a series of indefinite expressions:

• n’importe quoi = “anything” (literally, “it doesn’t matter what”)
• n’importe quand = “anytime” (literally, “it doesn’t matter when”)
• n’importe où = “anywhere” (literally, “it doesn’t matter where”)
• n’importe qui = “anybody” (literally, “it doesn’t matter who”)
• n’importe quel… = “any” (literally, “it doesn’t matter which…”)
• n’importe lequel = “any” (literally, “it doesn’t matter which [one]”)
• n’importe comment = “anyway” (literally, “it doesn’t matter how”)

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II. Ne Without Pas, and NOT Having Negative Force

A. After Deprecatory (OR Forfensive) Introductory Expressions Requiring the Subjunctive

1. Conjunctions Avant que, À moins que

• Je dois finir ce travail avant qu’il ne revienne. (I must finish this work before he returns.)
• A moins que la police n’intervienne, demain nous enlevons le président. (Unless the police intervene, tomorrow we are kidnapping the president.)

2. The Construction Rien n’empêche que

• Followed by a noun clause: Rien n’empêche que nos alliés ne nous restent fidèles. (Nothing prevents our allies from staying faithful to us.) ³

3. Expressions of Fear

• Je crains que ma femme ne soit fâchée contre moi. (I fear lest my wife / is / may be / angry at me.)
• J’ai peur que ma femme ne soit fâchée contre moi. (Ditto)
• J’ai fait ce que le m’aggresseur m’a dit, de peur qu’il ne m’abatte. (I did what the mugger told me, for fear lest he / take / should take / me down.)
• …de crainte qu’il ne m’abatte. (Ditto)

B. In the second term of a comparison (when the second term involves an entire clause)

• Le danger est plus grand que tu ne penses. (The danger is greater than you think.)
• Roger manque le but plus souvent qu’il ne l’atteint. (Roger misses the target more often than he hits it.)
• Catherine est plus talentueuse que ne l’est son frère. (Catherine is more talented than her brother is.)
  Of course, you could simply say: Catherine est plus talentueuse que son frère, which means exactly the same thing.

1. Even more literary is: Il n’a cesse de + infinitive. Cesse here is a noun, direct object of a.[↩]
2. Cf. John 12:24.[↩]
3. The verb “restent” is in the subjunctive. The same can be expressed with an infinitive construction instead of a noun clause: Rien n’empêche nos alliés de nous rester fidèles.[↩]

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