The french negation ne...pas is a very common expression in the french language. However, the preposition (de) in this form will be following the negation ne....pas. In this case, an infinitive(verb) will not be following the preposition (de). The meaning of (ne...pas de) of not having any, or an. In what follows the preposition(de) will be articles such as a group of people,person, animals, or things!
I. group of people!
Je n'ai pas de soeurs!
I don't have sisters!
Note: The conguated verb will always go in the middle of ne...pas
Example: n'ai pas, (ai) is the conguated verb of avoir.
II. Used for a person
Vous n'avez pas d'oncle.
You don't have an oncle.
Note: However, we are going to use (d') before the the vowel.
III. It is used for things
Nous n'avons pas de stylos
We don't have any pens!
IV. It is used for animals
Elles n'ont pas de chats
They don't have any cats.
"Pas de" has the same kind of quantitative value as numeric nouns like "beaucoup de", "tant de" etc. Just as the indefinite articles plural "des" and partitive "de la", du" are dropped after the preposition "de" in for example "beaucoup de", i.e, j'ai beaucoup de chats", and definitely not "j'ai beaucoup de des chats" so too are they dropped after "pas de". Hence the noun after "pas de" will always be either plural or partitive. "je n'ai pas de pain" = partitive, but "je n'ai pas de pommes" = plural. Basically, if a noun is countable, it will always be in the plural form after "pas de".
ReplyDeleteGlen Povey: your comment isn't really true. It is possible to have a countable noun in the singular after "pas de": this article has "pas d'oncle", and if you look at any French grammar they will always have the example "Elle n'a pas d'enfant".
ReplyDelete(I've never quite understood when to use the singular or the plural with a countable noun after "pas de". I just wanted to point out that your explanation isn't really accurate.)