Learn French: Il ne répond pas, et j'attends longtemps. - He does not answer, and I wait a long time.

Il ne répond pas, et j'attends longtemps.

He does not answer, and I wait a long time.

Breakdown of Il ne répond pas, et j'attends longtemps.

Questions & Answers about Il ne répond pas, et j'attends longtemps.

Why doesn't répond have a special ending for the il (he) form?

For regular -re verbs like répondre (to answer), you find the stem by dropping the -re, leaving répond-. For the il, elle, and on (he, she, and we) forms, you don't add any ending at all! The stem itself becomes the finished word.

Why does attends end with an -s?

Attendre (to wait) is also a regular -re verb. To make the je (I) and tu (you) forms for these verbs, you take the stem attend- and simply add an -s.

Why is it j'attends instead of je attends?

Whenever je (I) comes directly before a verb that starts with a vowel (like the a in attends), it drops its e and attaches to the verb with an apostrophe. This makes the words easier to say without pausing.

How do the negative words ne and pas work in this sentence?

To make a verb negative in French, you put ne right in front of the conjugated verb and pas right after it. Here, they hug the verb répond to mean "does not answer".