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 -

Cécile Janty-Davies · 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!

Chris Wirt · 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.