Ne...plus is the French way of saying no longer, not anymore, or no more. It pairs the standard negative particle ne with the adverb plus to mark an action or state that used to be true but isn't anymore. The construction is high-frequency from day one of A2 — but it hides one of the most counter-intuitive pronunciation rules in the language, because the same spelling plus is pronounced two completely different ways depending on whether it means more or no more.
This page covers the construction, the article rule that follows it, the position rules in compound tenses, and — at length — the pronunciation puzzle that trips up even advanced learners.
The core meaning
Ne...plus turns a positive statement into one that says the action has stopped. Whatever used to be the case is no longer the case.
Je ne fume plus.
I don't smoke anymore. / I no longer smoke.
Il n'habite plus à Paris.
He doesn't live in Paris anymore.
On ne se parle plus depuis l'année dernière.
We haven't spoken to each other since last year.
The implication is always temporal: at some earlier point in time, the smoking, the living in Paris, the speaking did happen. Now it has stopped. That carries a slightly different flavor from English no more — French ne...plus is much closer to not anymore.
Position: where plus goes
In a simple tense, plus sits right after the verb, exactly where pas would go in ne...pas.
Tu n'écoutes plus ce que je dis.
You don't listen to what I say anymore.
Elle ne veut plus me voir.
She doesn't want to see me anymore.
In a compound tense (passé composé, plus-que-parfait, etc.), plus slides between the auxiliary and the past participle — again, the same slot as pas.
Je n'ai plus vu Marc depuis ce jour-là.
I haven't seen Marc since that day.
Ils n'étaient plus rentrés chez eux depuis des mois.
They hadn't gone back home in months.
With an infinitive, both pieces stay together in front of the verb:
Il préfère ne plus en parler.
He prefers not to talk about it anymore.
The article rule: plus de + noun
This is where many learners stumble. After ne...plus, just like after ne...pas, the indefinite and partitive articles (un, une, des, du, de la, de l') collapse into a single de (or d' before a vowel). The logic is that the noun is now in a zero-quantity context — there isn't any of it.
Il n'y a plus de pain.
There's no more bread.
Je n'ai plus d'argent.
I don't have any money left.
On ne boit plus de vin chez eux.
They don't serve wine at their place anymore.
The definite article, however, stays unchanged — because definite articles refer to a specific known thing, not a quantity:
Je n'aime plus le café.
I don't like coffee anymore.
Elle ne supporte plus la chaleur.
She can't stand the heat anymore.
Mixing this up is one of the most common A2/B1 errors — see the Common Mistakes section.
The pronunciation puzzle: /ply/ vs /plys/
Here is the rule that everyone gets wrong: plus has three possible pronunciations depending on context, and the difference between no more and more is encoded only in the sound, never in the spelling.
| Context | Meaning | Pronunciation | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negation (ne...plus) | no more, not anymore | /ply/ (silent s) | je ne fume plus /ʒə nə fym ply/ |
| Positive quantity | more | /plys/ (s pronounced) | j'en veux plus /ʒɑ̃ vø plys/ (I want more) |
| Comparative + adjective/adverb | more (than) | /ply/ (silent s) before consonant; /plyz/ before vowel (liaison) | plus grand /ply ɡʁɑ̃/; plus important /plyz ɛ̃pɔʁtɑ̃/ |
So plus can be /ply/, /plys/, or /plyz/ depending on what surrounds it. Why does this matter? Because in spoken French, the sentence je n'en veux plus is genuinely ambiguous on paper — but completely unambiguous in speech:
J'en veux plus. /ʒɑ̃ vø ply/
I don't want any more. (negation — s silent; ne is dropped in casual speech)
J'en veux plus. /ʒɑ̃ vø plys/
I want more. (positive — s pronounced)
Same words, same word order, opposite meanings. The only difference is whether you say the s. This is one of the very few cases in French where a phonological feature carries the entire semantic load of a sentence.
When the s is /z/ (liaison)
In the comparative use (plus grand, plus important), French applies normal liaison rules: a silent final consonant comes alive before a vowel-initial word. So plus is /ply/ before a consonant but /plyz/ before a vowel.
C'est plus difficile. /sɛ ply difisil/
It's harder. (before consonant — silent s)
C'est plus intéressant. /sɛ plyz ɛ̃teʁesɑ̃/
It's more interesting. (before vowel — liaison gives /z/)
In the negation use, however, plus normally sits at the end of a clause or before an article, and the silent s stays silent.
"De plus en plus" — locked-in /s/
The fixed expression de plus en plus (more and more) has the s pronounced in the second plus in careful speech, but actual usage varies. Both /də ply ɑ̃ ply/ and /də ply ɑ̃ plys/ are heard. For learners, copying the second pronunciation /plys/ is safer because it makes the meaning unmistakable.
Il pleut de plus en plus.
It's raining more and more.
Reinforcing it: ne...plus du tout
To strengthen no longer into not at all anymore, French stacks the negative with du tout.
Je ne le supporte plus du tout.
I can't stand him at all anymore.
Elle ne sort plus du tout depuis qu'elle a déménagé.
She doesn't go out at all anymore since she moved.
Ne...plus jamais — stacking negatives
Unlike English, which usually allows only one negative per clause, French routinely stacks plus and jamais, plus and rien, plus and personne. Order matters: plus comes first.
Je ne lui parlerai plus jamais.
I'll never speak to him again.
Il n'y a plus rien dans le frigo.
There's nothing left in the fridge.
On ne voit plus personne le soir.
We don't see anyone anymore in the evenings.
This is one of the places French is more logical than English: each negative element adds its own meaning, and they stack neatly. Ne...plus jamais = "no longer ever" = "never again."
Dropping ne in spoken French
In informal speech, native speakers regularly drop ne and keep just plus — exactly as they drop ne in pas negation.
J'ai plus faim. /ʒɛ ply fɛ̃/
(informal) I'm not hungry anymore.
Y'a plus de café. /ja ply də kafe/
(informal) There's no coffee left.
Here the silent s in plus /ply/ is the only thing that signals negation — there is no ne to help. If a learner pronounces the s, the sentence flips to j'ai plus faim (/ʒɛ plys fɛ̃/) meaning "I'm hungrier" — exactly the opposite. This is why the pronunciation rule is not cosmetic: it is the entire negation.
Source-language comparison
English no longer / not anymore / no more maps cleanly onto ne...plus, but with one wrinkle: English uses no more both for no longer (temporal) and for not any more of a quantity. French splits these:
- temporal no more → ne...plus: je ne fume plus (I don't smoke anymore)
- quantitative no more → ne...plus de + noun: il n'y a plus de pain (there's no more bread)
Both use ne...plus, but the second one forces the plus de article rule. English speakers often forget the de and say things like il n'y a plus du pain, which is wrong.
Common Mistakes
❌ Il n'y a plus du pain.
Incorrect — after ne...plus, the partitive article du collapses to de.
✅ Il n'y a plus de pain.
There's no more bread.
❌ Je ne fume plus. /ʒə nə fym plys/
Incorrect pronunciation — the s is silent when plus means 'no more'.
✅ Je ne fume plus. /ʒə nə fym ply/
I don't smoke anymore. (silent s)
❌ J'ai plus faim. /ʒɛ plys fɛ̃/
In casual speech this sounds like 'I'm hungrier' — the pronounced s flips the meaning to positive 'more'.
✅ J'ai plus faim. /ʒɛ ply fɛ̃/
(informal) I'm not hungry anymore. (silent s carries the negation)
❌ Je n'aime plus de café.
Incorrect — definite article le stays after ne...plus (you're talking about coffee in general, not a quantity).
✅ Je n'aime plus le café.
I don't like coffee anymore.
❌ Je n'ai vu plus Marc.
Wrong position — in compound tenses, plus goes between the auxiliary and the participle.
✅ Je n'ai plus vu Marc.
I haven't seen Marc anymore.
Key takeaways
- Ne...plus = no longer, not anymore. The same slot as ne...pas.
- After ne...plus, indefinite/partitive articles collapse to de; definite articles stay.
- In compound tenses, plus goes between auxiliary and participle.
- The pronunciation is the load-bearing rule: plus = /ply/ when it means no more, /plys/ when it means more, /plyz/ in liaison before a vowel in the comparative use.
- In informal speech, ne drops and the silent s alone signals the negation. Pronouncing the s reverses the meaning.
- French stacks negatives logically: ne...plus jamais = never again, ne...plus rien = nothing anymore.
Now practice French
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
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...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.
- 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'.
- 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.
- Consonnes Finales MuettesA1 — Most word-final consonants in French are silent — except c, r, f, l (the CaReFuL letters), and even those have exceptions.
- Adverbes de TempsA1 — The everyday French adverbs that locate an action in time — hier, demain, maintenant, bientôt, déjà, encore, toujours, jamais, souvent, parfois — with the position rules and register notes that determine whether a sentence sounds native or translated.