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Negatives: ne...jamais, ne...rien, ne...personne

FoundationHigherAQA

Understand Negatives: ne...jamais, ne...rien, ne...personne for GCSE French with this free worksheet and full mark scheme — Foundation and Higher exam-style practice with worked answers for AQA GCSE French (8652). Jamais means never, rien means nothing and personne means nobody, each used with ne.

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These worksheets and mark schemes are original, written for Virtus Academy and checked against the current AQA specification. Every worksheet comes with a full mark scheme.

Foundation

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Higher

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Topic overview

Several other negatives replace pas with a different second word, each with its own meaning.

Ne...jamais means never: je ne mange jamais. Ne...rien means nothing: je ne mange rien. Ne...personne means nobody: je ne vois personne.

The positioning differs in the perfect tense. Jamais and rien go before the past participle, like pas: je n'ai jamais mangé, je n'ai rien mangé. But personne goes after it: je n'ai vu personne. This inconsistency catches students out and is worth learning as a specific exception rather than a rule to work out.

Revision notes

The three negatives

Ne...jamais — never. Ne...rien — nothing. Ne...personne — nobody.

Each replaces pas rather than joining it. Je ne mange jamais, not je ne mange pas jamais. The ne is still required in every case.

In the perfect tense

Jamais and rien go BEFORE the past participle: je n'ai jamais mangé, je n'ai rien mangé.

But personne goes AFTER it: je n'ai vu personne. This is an exception rather than a rule, and must be learned as such.

As one-word answers

They can stand alone in reply to a question.

Qu'est-ce que tu manges? Rien. Qui vois-tu? Personne. Quand y vas-tu? Jamais. In these answers the ne disappears because there is no verb.

Key points

  • Ne...jamais means never.
  • Ne...rien means nothing.
  • Ne...personne means nobody.
  • Each replaces pas rather than joining it.
  • Jamais and rien go before the participle.
  • Personne goes after the participle.

Worked examples

Example 1

Translate: I never eat meat. [2 marks]

Working

Je ne mange jamais de viandeuse ne...jamais around the verb
The partitive collapses to de after the negativeapply the partitive rule

Example 2

Translate: I saw nobody, in the perfect tense. [2 marks]

Working

Je n'ai vu personneplace ne before the auxiliary
Personne goes after the past participle, unlike rien and jamaisexplain the exception

Example 3

Translate: I ate nothing, in the perfect tense. [2 marks]

Working

Je n'ai rien mangéplace ne before the auxiliary
Rien goes before the past participle, like pasexplain the position

Common mistakes

  • Adding pas as well.

    These negatives replace pas.

  • Putting personne before the participle.

    It goes after: je n'ai vu personne.

  • Putting rien after the participle.

    It goes before: je n'ai rien mangé.

  • Omitting ne when there is a verb.

    It is required whenever a verb is present.

Exam tips

  • Never add pas to these negatives.
  • Learn the personne exception specifically.
  • Keep ne whenever there is a verb.
  • Drop ne only in one-word answers.

Key terms

Ne...jamais
Never.
Ne...rien
Nothing.
Ne...personne
Nobody, going after the past participle.
One-word answer
A reply with no verb, where ne disappears.

Related topics

Written and reviewed against the current AQA specification. Spotted an error? Let us know.