Negatives: ne ... pas
You make a sentence negative with a clip around the verb: ne before it, pas after it. Je ne parle pas. Before a vowel n', and un or du becomes de.
Why
A French-speaking classmate offers you a cheese sandwich, but you don't like cheese. How do you say so politely?
You say Merci, mais je n'aime pas le fromage. Without negatives you cannot say no, or say what you do not have or do not know: Je n'ai pas de stylo. Je ne comprends pas.
In English, not sits after a helper verb like do. In French the negative clips the verb in between. Once you have seen that, you can make any sentence negative.
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