Learn French: Nous ne sommes pas fatigués.

Nous ne sommes pas fatigués.

We are not tired.

Breakdown of Nous ne sommes pas fatigués.

être

to be

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

fatigué

tired

not (used before the verb)

Questions & Answers about Nous ne sommes pas fatigués.

How does the negative part of this sentence work?

In French, saying "not" takes two words: ne and pas. Think of them like two halves of a sandwich wrapping around the verb. Here, the verb is sommes (are), so we wrap it to make ne sommes pas (are not).

Why is it ne here instead of n'?

You only shrink ne down to n' (which is called elision) when the verb right after it starts with a vowel or a silent 'h'. Because sommes starts with a consonant ('s'), ne stays as a full word.

Why is there an 's' at the end of fatigués?

In French, describing words (adjectives) have to match the person or thing they describe. Because nous (we) means more than one person, we add a plural -s to fatigué. If the group was made up entirely of women, you would add an 'e' for feminine and an 's' for plural to make fatiguées.

Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of nous, pas, and fatigués?

No, they are all silent! In French, consonants at the very end of a word are usually not pronounced. An exception is sometimes made when the next word starts with a vowel (called a liaison), but here nous is followed by ne (which starts with a consonant), so its 's' stays silent.