Placement of ne ... pas

Brian D.C1Kwiziq community member

Placement of ne ... pas

En place de: Il ne faut pas que nous mangions avec nos doigts, puisqu'on dire: I faut que nous ne mangions pas avec nos doigts?

Asked 1 year ago
CélineKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Brian,

Jim is correct. You are negating "falloir" (aka, "the necessity of") rather than "manger". It would sound very strange to a native French speaker to hear "il faut que nous ne mangions pas...".

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Bonjour Brian,

Interesting point!

If we take I faut que  --> It must be that ..  or It is necessary that...

The negation of falloir rather than manger seems to me to carry more of a forceful rebuke that the action of eating with the fingers is absolutely unacceptable   --  the negation of the verb manger seems a more milder rebuke although amounting to the same message.

I see the above as being the point to keep in mind

Hope this helps,

Bonne journée

Jim

Placement of ne ... pas

En place de: Il ne faut pas que nous mangions avec nos doigts, puisqu'on dire: I faut que nous ne mangions pas avec nos doigts?

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