📖LearnModule 7 · Lesson 22 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, completedUnit 5 · Ne... plus, jamais, rien, personne
Ne... rien, ne... personne
Module 7 of the free French course (CEFR B1, completed), lesson 22 of 30: Rien is nothing and personne is nobody. On this page: 8 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 22.
The words
French
English
Say it
je ne vois rien
I see nothing
zhuh nuh vwah RYA(n)
je ne connais personne
I know nobody
zhuh nuh koh-neh pehr-SUN
rien ne marche
nothing works
rya(n) nuh MAHRSH
personne n'est venu
nobody came
pehr-sun neh vuh-NEW
vide
empty
veed
marcher
to work (function)
mahr-SHAY
en panne
out of order
ah(n) PAHN
inquiet
worried
a(n)-KYEH
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La règle · The rule
Rien is nothing and personne is nobody, and both work as the second half of the sandwich: je ne vois rien (I see nothing), je ne connais personne (I know nobody).
Et aussi · And also
They can also start a sentence, and then they carry the ne with them: rien ne marche — nothing works. Personne n'est venu — nobody came. The ne never disappears in writing, whatever you hear in a café.
Attention · Watch out
rien and personne can be the subject, and then they carry the ne with them: rien ne marche, personne n'est venu. The ne never disappears in writing.
voir — the table
je vois · tu vois · il/elle voit · nous voyons · vous voyez · ils/elles voient
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with je ne vois rien.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write out voir in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.