#invicta5
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Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.
Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.
on peut dire pour qu'elle ne se dessèchent pas
mais pas pour qu'elle ne pas se dessèchent
Alrighty, but isn't 'pour ne pas qu'elles' incorrect ?
How to decide which structure to use when ? Like when to use **pour ne pas qu'elle se ___ ** and when to use **pour qu'elle ne se ___ pas **
Alright, so this is a phenomenon caused by a sort of 'blending' between how negation adverbs in infinitives and clauses work. Going back to negation for a bit, remember that negation sits around a verb; you have « ne » being placed right after the subject and « pas/jamais/rien » being placed right after the verb. This is why, by the way, the second part should be « pour qu'elles ne se dessèchent pas » but I digress. Well, when we're dealing with infinitives – that is, there is no subject and the verb is left unconjugated – the negation adverb sort of groups at the beginning. I'll give you an example:
« J'ai peur de ne pas venir. »
« J'ai peur qu'elle ne vienne pas. »
The difference of meaning notwithstanding, notice the position of « pas » in the first and second sentences. Because the verb is left unconjugated, the adverb is placed before the verb. This follows other short adverbs; they tend to be placed before the infinitive (j'ai décidé de bien suivre les règles).
In terms of your example, the conjunction « pour », like some others, can take an infinitive or a clause depending on what follows. If what follows is an infinitive we have no change but if it's a clause, we add « que ».
« Je viens pour garantir la sécurité. »
« Je viens pour que tu garantisses la sécurité. »
Now, usually, when we add the negative adverbs, we expect both elements to be behind the verb for the first sentence and wrap around the verb for the second:
« Je viens pour ne pas garantir la sécurité. »
« Je viens pour que tu ne garantisses pas la sécurité. »
However, French native speakers have started to meld the two and so you have the bunching up of an infinitive sentence but with a clause:
« Je viens pour ne pas que tu garantisses la sécurité. »
pavé césar
toujours
fun story: the académie is full of idiots and they think this structure is wrong: https://www.academie-francaise.fr/pour-pas-que-au-lieu-de-pour-que-ne-pas
classic
I believe that it comes down to how the grammar is understood and dissected. The original or the, quote-unquote, 'right' version would be that « que » attaches to « pour » and so the adverbs just get placed before the clause. « … pour garantir la sécurité » is understood as « pour + garantir la sécurité » and so when we put the negation, we think of it as « … pour + ne pas garantir la sécurité ». French natives have essentially generalised this and so they think that « que » belongs to the clause: « pour que tu garantisses la sécurité » is understood as « pour + que tu garantisses la sécurité » and not « pour que + tu garantisses la sécurité », which would be what grammarians would say. Because of that observation of « ne pas » being inserted at the very start of the clause, we see « … pour + ne pas que tu garantisses la sécurité ».
Wow this is so interesting @upper olive 🙏 . I loved reading this💟 . Thank you for the detailed answer.
I try to wrap my head around French Sentence Structure once a week, when I'm not doing my speaking or listening practice.
But only once, else it can be overwhelming.
Again, merci beaucoup ⭐
This kind of 'mistake' where people dissected the words/structure wrong is very common in languages
tons of examples
Happens in English ('an apron' from 'a napron', 'court martials' instead of 'courts martial'), French (« la licorne » from « unicorne » being dissected as « une icorne » then « l'icorne (la + icorne) » becoming « licorne »), Arabic ('Iskandar' from Arabic speakers mistakenly thinking the Al in Alexander as the definite article: Al Exander (The Eksander)), etc
Strictly speaking I don't think we can analyze the case of "pour que" shifting how the grammar works with examples of rebracketing, which I believe is primarily a lexical phenomenon (although it's definitely similar)