Breakdown of Nous ne perdons pas le courrier.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
ne
not (used before the verb)
pas
not (used after the verb)
le courrier
the mail
perdre
to lose
Questions & Answers about Nous ne perdons pas le courrier.
How do we form perdons from the dictionary form of the verb?
The dictionary form (the infinitive) is perdre (to lose). Because it is a regular -re verb, you drop the -re ending to find the stem perd-. Then, you add the nous ending, which is -ons, giving us perdons.
Why are there two words, ne and pas, to mean "do not"?
In French, making a sentence negative is like making a sandwich around the verb. You put ne before the conjugated verb and pas after it. Here, the verb is perdons, so the negative form becomes ne perdons pas.
Is the "s" at the end of perdons pronounced?
No, the final "s" is silent. In French, most consonants at the end of a word are silent unless the following word begins with a vowel sound. Since the next word here is pas, the "s" stays silent.
Why do we use le before courrier? Can we just say courrier?
In French, nouns almost always need an article in front of them, even if we might drop it in English. Because courrier is a masculine noun, it uses the masculine definite article le (the).
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