Question

Bonjour,
I was looking through some of the older threads to see if I could not benefit from some of the answers given and I came across this sentence (from a poem):
une personne qui peut ne jamais être vendue
I was wondering WHY the "ne" is placed AFTER the "peut"
we say: "je ne peux pas", so why is it not
"une personne qui ne peut jamais être vendue"

Thank you for clarifying.

Answer 1

is it maybe that the negation pertains to the "être" rather than to the "peut"?

Answer 2

Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. Both parts of the negative ("ne jamais" in this case) generally precede the infinitive.

Examples: Il s'est arrêté pour ne pas tomber. = He stopped in order not to fall.
Il vaut mieux ne rien dire . = It is better to say nothing.
Je peux ne rien comprendre. = I am not able to understand.

Mme

Answer 3

exactly

Answer 4

Thank you.
Your last sentence I would have translated this way:
je ne peux comprendre rien
Is that totally false???

Answer 5

Well, if you want to work "ne...pas" around "peux" it's better. "je ne peux pas..." I can't (cannot) and then perhaps add "comprendre" as an after thought.

Mme

Answer 6

so you mean that I should have said:
je ne peux pas rien comprendre
or
je ne peux pas comprendre rien

I thought that with "rien" one does not need the "pas"; I thought that "pas" is replaced, more or less, by "rien".

I am a little confused.

Answer 7

No, No. If you use rien, you do not use pas. There are many negatives:
ne...pas, ne... rien, ne...point, ne... point, ne...jamais, ne...plus, ne...guère, ne...personne, ne...ni...ni, ne...que, ne...aucun(e), ne ...nul/nulle. What I meant was "je ne peux rien comprendre" when you know upon opening your mouth that it will be negative and then as an added thought, you add comprendre.

What is absolutely correct here? Let's have no confusion ! "Je peux ne rien comprendre.

Mme

Answer 8

Merci, Mme - je crois que je comprends maintenant.

Answer 9

So, if I want to say:
"You cannot give us a book" how would you phrase it?
(normally I would have said:
"vous ne nous pouvez pas donner un livre"
according to what you said about the two parts of the negation having to precede the verb in the infinitive, I would need to say:
Vous pouvez ne pas nous donner un livre

Is that correct??? Or am I still incorrect?