Ne … personne is the French equivalent of English nobody / not anybody. Like rien, it negates the thing the verb acts on (or the doer) rather than the verb itself; unlike rien, that "thing" is a person rather than an object or idea. Je ne vois rien means "I don't see anything"; je ne vois personne means "I don't see anybody."
But here is where this page earns its keep. Personne behaves differently from rien in compound tenses and in infinitive constructions. That single asymmetry is the single most common error in beginning French. This page drills the difference, the modifier pattern (personne de spécial), the subject use (personne n'est venu), and the trap of confusing this negation word with the unrelated feminine noun la personne meaning "the person."
The default position
In simple tenses, personne sits after the verb, exactly where pas, rien, jamais sit:
Je ne vois personne.
I don't see anybody.
Il ne connaît personne dans cette ville.
He doesn't know anybody in this city.
Tu n'attends personne ?
You're not waiting for anybody?
On n'a besoin de personne.
We don't need anybody.
As with all French negation words, personne by itself is enough to express the negative meaning, but the ne is still required in front of the verb. Dropping it is a feature of casual spoken French only — in writing of any seriousness, the ne must be there.
The must-drill rule: personne in compound tenses
In compound tenses, personne goes after the past participle — not between the auxiliary and the participle. This is the opposite of rien.
ne + auxiliary + past participle + personne
Je n'ai vu personne dans le couloir.
I didn't see anybody in the hallway.
Elle n'a invité personne à son anniversaire.
She didn't invite anybody to her birthday.
On n'avait croisé personne sur le chemin.
We hadn't run into anybody on the way.
Tu n'as rencontré personne d'intéressant ?
You didn't meet anybody interesting?
Compare this directly with rien:
| Negation | Compound-tense slot | Example |
|---|---|---|
| rien | between auxiliary and participle | Je n'ai rien vu. |
| personne | after the participle | Je n'ai vu personne. |
The structural reason: rien behaves like a short adverbial (in the same family as pas, plus, jamais), all of which clamp onto the auxiliary; personne behaves like a direct object noun, and direct object nouns sit after the participle. You can also think of it this way: the past participle in French has a strong attraction to the auxiliary, and only the lightest, most adverbial words (pas, plus, rien, jamais, déjà, encore) can wedge themselves in between. A "heavy" object like personne gets pushed to the right of the participle.
With an infinitive
Same parallel. To negate an infinitive with personne, the negation splits: ne goes before the infinitive, personne goes after it.
Préférer ne voir personne pendant les vacances, c'est étrange.
To prefer to see nobody during the holidays — that's strange.
Il m'a promis de ne dire ça à personne.
He promised me he wouldn't tell that to anybody.
Pour ne déranger personne, ils sont partis sans bruit.
So as not to disturb anybody, they left silently.
Contrast: with rien, both halves stick together before the infinitive (ne rien voir). With personne, the personne goes after (ne voir personne). The pattern matches the compound-tense rule perfectly — rien clamps early, personne hangs back.
Personne as the subject
Personne can also be the subject of the sentence, just like rien. When it is, ne is still required before the verb — exactly as with rien n'est, rien ne ….
Personne n'est venu à la fête.
Nobody came to the party.
Personne ne sait ce qui s'est passé.
Nobody knows what happened.
Personne n'a appelé pendant ton absence.
Nobody called while you were away.
When personne is the subject of a compound tense, the structure is Personne + n' + auxiliary + past participle. The personne sits at the front and the participle stays where it normally does. There's no movement to worry about.
Personne n'a remarqué ton changement de coiffure.
Nobody noticed your new haircut.
The temptation for English speakers is to drop the ne because personne feels like enough negation by itself (nobody came). Resist it. In any context except very casual speech, personne n'a, personne n'est, personne ne with the ne is the correct shape.
Modifying personne: personne de + adjective
To say nobody interesting, nobody important, nobody nice, French uses the same construction as for rien: personne de + adjective (masculine singular).
Je n'ai rencontré personne d'intéressant à la conférence.
I didn't meet anybody interesting at the conference.
Il n'y a personne de disponible cet après-midi.
There's nobody available this afternoon.
On cherche quelqu'un de sérieux — personne de fantaisiste.
We're looking for somebody serious — nobody flashy.
Two important sub-rules. First, the de is mandatory — personne intéressant is wrong; it must be personne d'intéressant. Second, the adjective is always masculine singular, regardless of who is being referred to. Even if you're talking about a woman, the adjective stays masculine. Personne in this construction has no real gender of its own.
J'ai cherché une coloc, mais je n'ai trouvé personne de sympa.
I looked for a roommate, but I didn't find anybody nice.
Yes, the speaker is looking for a (possibly female) roommate. Sympa still stays in its uninflected form. The same logic applies to rien de + adj and to the positive counterparts quelqu'un de + adj and quelque chose de + adj.
Personne the negation vs la personne the noun
Here is a confusion that almost every learner runs into: personne is also a perfectly ordinary feminine noun meaning person. The two are spelled and pronounced identically, but they behave completely differently.
| personne (negation) | la personne (noun) | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | nobody / not anybody | a person |
| Gender | no real gender (treated masculine in modifier) | feminine (always) |
| Article | none — bare | la, une, des, etc. |
| Needs ne? | yes (with a verb) | no |
La personne qui a appelé ne s'est pas présentée.
The person who called didn't give their name. (noun)
Personne n'a appelé.
Nobody called. (negation)
Cette personne est très gentille.
This person is very nice. (noun — and crucially, agreement is feminine: gentille, not gentil)
Je n'ai trouvé personne de gentil.
I didn't find anybody nice. (negation — and now masculine: gentil, not gentille)
The fourth example is the diagnostic one. La personne gentille (the nice person — adjective agrees feminine) and personne de gentil (nobody nice — adjective stays masculine) use the same word personne in two completely different functions. If you encounter personne with an article (la personne, une personne), it's the noun. If it's bare and accompanies a ne, it's the negation.
Idiomatic and emphatic uses
Personne d'autre — "nobody else" — is a useful fixed expression.
Je n'aime personne d'autre que toi.
I don't love anybody else but you.
Ne … plus personne — "nobody anymore."
Il n'y a plus personne dans la rue à cette heure.
There's nobody left in the street at this hour.
Ne … jamais personne — "never anybody."
Tu n'invites jamais personne chez toi.
You never invite anybody over.
Notice the position: plus and jamais still occupy their normal slot (between auxiliary and participle, or after the verb in simple tenses), while personne still hangs at the end. The slots don't change just because multiple negations are stacked.
Comparison with English
English nobody / anybody carries the negation in itself; French splits the work between ne (the marker) and personne (the meaning). Logically equivalent.
The real contrast is positional. English uses the same word order for I didn't see anybody / I haven't seen anybody — both end in anybody. French distinguishes:
- Je ne vois personne. (simple tense)
- Je n'ai vu personne. (compound tense, personne after participle)
- Je préfère ne voir personne. (infinitive, personne after the infinitive)
In all three, personne sits at the right edge of the verb cluster. That's the position you want to internalize: personne hangs back. Compare with rien, which always wants to be as close to the auxiliary as possible: rien clamps early.
For the positive counterpart quelqu'un (somebody) and the question form (tu as vu quelqu'un ? — did you see anybody?), see pronouns/indefinite/quelqu-un-personne.
Common Mistakes
❌ Je n'ai personne vu.
Incorrect — personne goes AFTER the past participle, not between auxiliary and participle.
✅ Je n'ai vu personne.
I didn't see anybody.
❌ Personne est venu.
Incorrect — even when personne is the subject, ne is mandatory before the verb.
✅ Personne n'est venu.
Nobody came.
❌ Je n'ai trouvé personne sympa.
Incorrect — to modify personne with an adjective, the linker 'de' is required.
✅ Je n'ai trouvé personne de sympa.
I didn't find anybody nice.
❌ Je n'ai rencontré personne d'intéressante.
Incorrect — the adjective after 'personne de' always stays masculine singular, regardless of the people being referred to.
✅ Je n'ai rencontré personne d'intéressant.
I didn't meet anybody interesting.
❌ Je ne personne connais ici.
Incorrect — personne is not a clitic and doesn't go between ne and the verb. It comes after the verb.
✅ Je ne connais personne ici.
I don't know anybody here.
❌ La personne ne sait personne sur ce sujet.
Mixing the noun 'la personne' (the person) and the negation 'personne' (nobody) is awkward and ungrammatical here — likely the speaker meant 'personne ne sait' (nobody knows).
✅ Personne ne sait rien sur ce sujet.
Nobody knows anything on this topic.
Key takeaways
- Default position: ne + verb + personne in simple tenses.
- Compound tenses: personne goes after the past participle — je n'ai vu personne. This is the mirror image of rien.
- Infinitives: ne + infinitive + personne. The bracket splits around the infinitive, with personne hanging back.
- As subject: personne n'est, personne ne … — ne is still required.
- Modifier: personne de + masculine singular adjective. The de is mandatory and the adjective never agrees.
- Trap: la personne (with article) is the feminine noun meaning person; personne (bare, with ne) is the negation meaning nobody. Same spelling, different categories.
- The ne drops in casual speech (je vois personne) but stays in writing.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- La Négation en Français: OverviewA1 — A map of French negation: the two-part ne…X bracket, the inventory of negation words that fill the X slot, the rules for placing them around simple verbs, compound tenses, and infinitives, and the spoken-French habit of dropping the ne entirely.
- Ne...rien: nothingA1 — How ne…rien works — the placement that sets it apart from ne…personne, the modifier construction with de + adjective, the behavior as subject, and the must-drill compound-tense rule that rien squeezes between auxiliary and participle.
- Ne...pas: la négation simpleA1 — How to use the default French negation ne…pas across simple tenses, compound tenses, the imperative, infinitives, and pronoun-heavy clauses — plus the article shift from un/du/des to de, and the spoken-French habit of dropping the ne.
- Quelqu'un and Personne: Someone and No OneA1 — Quelqu'un (someone) and personne (no one) form a complementary pair: one is a free-standing positive pronoun, the other a negative pronoun that demands ne. Why personne behaves differently from regular nouns, how the de + masculine adjective construction works, and the ne-drop pattern in casual speech.
- Ne...jamais: neverA1 — How ne…jamais works — placement parallel to ne…pas, position between auxiliary and participle in compound tenses, the article shift to 'de', the rarer use of jamais alone meaning 'ever' in formal questions, and the fixed expressions 'à jamais' and 'jamais de la vie'.