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Negative Pronouns Rien and Personne by Bruce Sallee and David Hebert

Both rien and personne can be used as a pronoun, in addition to the construction seen above. Negative pronouns operate slightly differently from the negative expressions in the rest of this chapter. The main word is placed at the beginning of the word in the subject position and the ne follows it in its regular position after the subject but before the verb.

Personne

Personne (which means “no one” or “nobody”) can be used as the subject of the sentence:

<tgroup cols="2"> <colspec colname="col1" colnum="1" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colname="col2" colnum="2" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>Personne ne me voit</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>Nobody sees me.</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <h2>Rien</h2> <p>Use rien as the subject of a sentence to say “nothing…”:</p> <table frame="none" width="100%"> <title/> <tgroup cols="2"> <colspec colname="col1" colnum="1" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colname="col2" colnum="2" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>Rien ne m'inquiète</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>Nothing worries me.</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <!--/gc--> <div id="pagination"><ul><li class="prev"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/french/negating-words-and-phrases/the-negative-construction-nenini.htm" title="The Negative Construction ne…ni…ni.">The Negative 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