Negating and questioning the passé composé
The passé composé with avoir — talking about yesterday · The passé composé with être · Ne … pas — making a sentence negative
Negation wraps the auxiliary, never the participle. Say it once and it becomes automatic.
"Je n'ai pas travaillé." · "Elle n'est pas venue."
Every negative pair behaves the same way:
| ne … pas | not | Je n'ai pas compris. |
|---|---|---|
| ne … jamais | never | Il n'est jamais allé en France. |
| ne … rien | nothing | Je n'ai rien dit. |
| ne … plus | no longer | Elle n'a plus téléphoné. |
| ne … personne | nobody | Je n'ai vu personne. |
personne is the exception: it goes after the participle, while all the others sit between the auxiliary and the participle. Compare Je n'ai rien vu with Je n'ai vu personne**.
With a reflexive verb, ne goes before the pronoun and the whole block stays together: "Je ne me suis pas levé tôt."
Questions need nothing new — est-ce que in front, or a rising voice: "Est-ce que tu as fini ?" · "Tu as fini ?"
A negative question is answered with si, not oui, when you disagree with it:
- — Tu n'as pas mangé ?
- — Si, j'ai mangé ! (yes, I did)
That si has no English equivalent, and leaving it out reverses your meaning.
Knowing the rule is not the same as producing it.
This page explains the pattern. The track drills it: the point arrives inside a mini-dialogue, then production marked against a CEFR descriptor, then a module test that returns you to your two weakest sessions if you miss it.