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Je ne comprends pas le livre.

Je ne comprends pas le livre.
I do not understand the book.
From Lesson 15:Basic verbal negation (ne... pas)·French

Questions & Answers about Je ne comprends pas le livre.

Why are there two words, ne and pas, to say "do not"?
In French, basic negation is like a sandwich. You put ne before the conjugated verb (comprends) and pas after it. Together, ne ... pas means "not" or "do not".
Why is it ne here instead of n'?
You only drop the 'e' and use n' when the verb following it starts with a vowel or a silent 'h'. Because comprends starts with a consonant ('c'), you use the full word ne.
Why does comprends end with an 's' if it is paired with je?
For many French verbs, especially those ending in '-re' like comprendre (to understand), the je (I) and tu (you) forms end in an 's'. The 's' here is silent.
Why do we use le for "the book" instead of la?
In French, every noun has a gender. The word for book, livre, is masculine, so you use the masculine word for "the", which is le. If the noun were feminine, you would use la.

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