Ne...pas and arrive (present ?)

Question

Hi,"Je ne saurais expliquer ce qui m'arrive aujourd'hui"2 questions:Why is there no "pas" - is this a negative sentence?Why is "arrive" in present tense and not passe compose?- ce qui me suis arrivé -

Accepted Answer

Hi Dragana, 
1. Certain verbs don't require the 'pas' to indicate a negation and 'savoir' is one of them.
Although you can use the 'pas', it sounds more elevated without it. 
Take a look at the following page -
https://regardsurlefrancais.com/2019/04/12/les-verbes-qui-nont-pas-besoin-de-pas-a-la-negation/
 
2. It is the present 
ce qui m'arrive aujourd'hui = what is happening to me today 
if it was the past it would have been -
ce qui m'est arrivé/e aujourd'hui = what happened to me today 
That's just the way it was written 
Hope this helps!

Answer

Just to distill the gist of the link Cécil posted (which was also news to me):

There are four French verbs that don't require the second half of the standard negation phrase (like pas, jamais, plus, rien, etc.) and get away with only a lonely ne: oser, cesser, pouvoir, savoir.

For these verbs, using only ne results in a higher register of negation. So you'll find this version in literature and higher level French writing.