Postby Le Baron » Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:25 pm
I didn't know the name supplied above, I don't care for remembering grammar terms. It is indeed an awkward point of grammar though, which can be avoided by rewording in a simpler, clearer way, though not always.
It has the tendency to cause confusion with sentences like:
'j'ai peur qu'il ne sache...' which could be mistaken for 'j'ai peur qu'il ne sache pas..'
The ne in the first example, as Dragon27's post indicates, points to an apprehensive contingency rather than a negation and in a subordinate clause beginning with something-que. Though not 'après de...' avant de' and not if negation is already somewhere indicated.
The missing completion of a negative (pas, plus, jamais...etc) is a good clue for seeing that it isn't ordinary negation. In writing at any rate. It would be harder to spot in speech, but as Iversen says it's archaic and a bit literary.
edit: 'can' be avoided (not 'can't').
Last edited by
Le Baron on Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
1 x
Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
- Jonathan Swift