Re: Story - TCOAIW

En réponse à Kendra <kendra@...>:

>
> You laugh at my pain! /cry ;)
>
No, I laughed at your temporary death :)) (sorry, I have very black humour
these days...).

>
> I've never heard that mentioned before, though I must have noticed,
> because
> every so often I go to say je something pas and then get mad at myself
> for
> forgetting the ne.
>
You shouldn't: it's by "forgetting" it that you speak a French closer to what
French speakers actually use. Using "ne" is a strong mark that you are a
foreigner.

>
> Would "ne" ever be used, in  casual conversation, for emphasis or
> something?
>
No. I've thought about that because I was not sure but it sounds exceedingly
awkward to me. For emphasis, we just use longer negative expressions, like "pas
du tout": not at all, or we stress the negative expression itself. We can also
add a "non" at the end of the sentence. That's also quite frequent. Except when
the subject of the verb is itself negated, it seems that negation is now
restricted to positions after the verb in spoken French...

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.