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Je n'ai pas fait cet exercice parce que mon réveil n'a pas sonné.

Je n'ai pas fait cet exercice parce que mon réveil n'a pas sonné.
I did not do this exercise because my alarm clock did not ring.
From Lesson 74:The negative passé composé (ne ... pas)·French

Questions & Answers about Je n'ai pas fait cet exercice parce que mon réveil n'a pas sonné.

Where exactly do the negative words go in these past tense phrases?
In the passé composé (past tense), ne and pas act like a sandwich around the helper verb. In this sentence, they go around ai and a (forms of the verb avoir). The past action words, fait and sonné, are placed directly after pas.
Why does the word ne have an apostrophe in n'ai and n'a?
French drops the letter 'e' in short words like ne when the very next word begins with a vowel sound. Because the helper verbs ai and a start with vowels, ne shrinks to n' to keep the sentence flowing smoothly.
Why is it cet exercice instead of ce exercice?
The word exercice is masculine, so normally you would use ce to say 'this'. However, because exercice starts with a vowel, French changes ce to cet to avoid having two vowel sounds bump into each other.
Where does the word fait come from?
Fait is the past participle of the irregular verb faire, which means 'to do' or 'to make'. While regular verbs follow a predictable pattern for the past tense (like sonner becoming sonné in the second half of the sentence), irregular ones like fait simply have to be memorized.

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