Unit 3 · Lesson 4
Negation & Time Expressions
Knowing how to negate a past tense sentence and how to locate events in time are essential skills. French offers several negation patterns beyond ne...pas, and a rich vocabulary of time expressions that signal when events occurred.
In the passé composé, the two-part negation always wraps the auxiliary verb. The past participle comes after the negation. This rule applies to all negation types: ne...pas, ne...jamais, ne...plus, ne...rien.
Time expressions for the past
hier — yesterday
hier soir — last night / yesterday evening
ce matin — this morning
la semaine dernière — last week
le mois dernier — last month
l'année dernière — last year
il y a + [time] — [time] ago
déjà — already
tout à l'heure — just now / a moment ago
il y a longtemps — a long time ago
Time expressions in the passé composé
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French
hier
tap to flip
English
yesterday
Hier, j'ai vu un film.: Yesterday, I watched a film.
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Negation — four key patterns
All negation patterns follow the same rule: ne wraps the auxiliary verb, and the second element goes immediately after the auxiliary, before the past participle.
ne...pas — not
Il n'a pas mangé.
She didn't eat.
ne...jamais — never
Il n'a jamais voyagé.
He has never travelled.
ne...plus — no longer
Elle n'est plus venue.
She didn't come anymore.
ne...rien — nothing
Ils n'ont rien dit.
They said nothing.
Time expressions: French to English
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Click a French word, then click its English match.
Negation and time expressions
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Hint: ne...pas wraps the auxiliary: elle n'a pas mangé
She didn't eat this morning.
Negation & time expressions quiz
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Where does 'ne...pas' go in the passé composé?
You've covered passé composé with avoir and être, irregular past participles, and negation with time expressions. Test yourself before moving on to Unit 4.