Tout doucement

[languid sleet]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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[deft monolith]

Do you have any examples? Because unless the text is reasonably old, it might be the ne explétif.

If it is old, then 'ne' is the only negation you'd encounter.

[weary coyote]

Unless what you’re reading is older than, like, 13th-14th century, ne will always be followed by an adverb. Of course, some verbs/expressions can use ne without the accompanying adverb but that’s a very tiny minority. In older works, the negating adverb would be « point » instead of « pas » but that’s it

[static thorn]

its from a litterature book called une si longue lettre

it is old i believe

written by a Senegalese author

[static thorn]

what verbs are those?

[weary coyote]

Not that old, 1979. You got any examples?

[static thorn]

"adore le subjonctif"😔

[weary coyote]

It’s in the ariticle

[static thorn]

le subjonctif est fou!

[static thorn]

yeah

certaines de mes belles sœurs n'enviaient guère de ma façon de vivre

unless guère is some kind if negator

that idk about

[weary coyote]

ne … guère = barely, hardly

[static thorn]

i honestly read it at first as an adjective

😭

i thought it was

[weary coyote]

It’s very literary, nowadays you’d use « à peine » or « presque jamais »

[static thorn]

like some kind of phrase that's like n "envier guère

[static thorn]

ohhhh

so no one says it

thx alot btw @weary coyote and @deft monolith

[deft monolith]

Happy to help.

[weary coyote]

Some of my sisters-in-law hardly ever envied my way of living

[static thorn]

understood

[weary coyote]

If you find a lone ne, look at what follows the verb

so if you see something like « Il n’a même point pensé à elle auparavant » like you know « même » is an adverb so look up what comes after like « ne point » or even the whole thing « ne même point »

You will surely find something