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Negative in french: le/la/les

Can you use le/la/les in the negative in french? Or is it ‘de’ always?

Hey, what do you mean by in the negative ? Le/la/les are used to designate something (a noun) that is defined. For example you would say "le dentiste" to talk about your dentist, whereas you would use "un dentiste" to talk about a dentist in general. These le/la/les are by no means a way to express negation, the same goes for "du" which is another determiner.

Reply 2

Plantagenet Crown

Original post by blatherslog

I believe the correct term for them is articles, with le/la/les being definite articles and un/une being indefinite articles.

Reply 3

fairela

Original post by Beth5510

Can you use le/la/les in the negative in french? Or is it ‘de’ always?

Most of the times it'll be de but not always e.g ''Je ne joue pas au foot'' ''Je n'aime pas les légumes''. If you're only at GCSE level I'd stick with the rule you've been taught.

Reply 4

Charles III

Original post by Beth5510

Can you use le/la/les in the negative in french? Or is it ‘de’ always?

I think you've got a little bit confused here... basic French negation is formed by 'ne' and 'pas' (you can exchange 'pas' for a whole plethora of words)... for example... « Je n'aime pas les légumes !" » (the 'les' here is to agree with the word 'légumes' as it is in plural form, it does not depend on the negation to exist).

The negation has been highlighted in bold for you. As the poster above says, le/la/les/etc are the definite article and un/une/des are for the indefinite article. There's also du/de la and des for the partitive article (don't worry too much about this)... but these can be used regardless of whether or not negation is present.

Have a look at this https://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-3227.php to learn more about the articles and here https://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-58459.php for how to use negation in French.

Bonne chance pour tes examens !

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 5

blatherslog

Original post by Plantagenet Crown

I believe the correct term for them is articles, with le/la/les being definite articles and un/une being indefinite articles.

That's right, they are articles. "Determiner" (i believe that's the translation for "déterminants") is a larger term, divided in categories in which you can put articles and such. However, that's just boring grammar also I will shut up.

Reply 6

Quirky Object

Original post by Beth5510

Can you use le/la/les in the negative in french? Or is it ‘de’ always?

I think you're referring to when objects which take du/de la/des or un/une when positive take de when negative, e.g. "j'ai du pain" -> "je n'ai pas de pain" or "j'ai un chapeau" -> "je n'ai pas de chapeaux" (note the second example is plural, as it would be in English if you were saying "I don't have any hats"). In that case, yes, it's always de. However, if you would have used the definite article (le/la/les) in a positive version of the sentence, you keep that article, so you can say "je n'aime pas les legumes" or "je n'ai pas le temps."

I've moved this thread to the foreign languages study help forum; please post subject-specific questions in subject fora in the future :smile: