Ne...pas and arrive (present ?)

Dragana E.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Ne...pas and arrive (present ?)

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 -

Asked 2 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect 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 W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

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.

Dragana E. asked:

Ne...pas and arrive (present ?)

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 -

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