Learn French: Le garçon n'a pas cassé cette fenêtre. - The boy did not break this window.

Le garçon n'a pas cassé cette fenêtre.

The boy did not break this window.

Breakdown of Le garçon n'a pas cassé cette fenêtre.

not (used before the verb)

Questions & Answers about Le garçon n'a pas cassé cette fenêtre.

Why do n' and pas go around a instead of the action word cassé?

In the past tense (passé composé), the negative words ne and pas always "hug" the helper verb. Here, the helper verb is a (has). So you wrap it like this: n'a pas. The main action word (cassé) always comes after pas.

Why does the sentence use n'a instead of ne a?

In French, when ne comes right before a word starting with a vowel (like the helper verb a), the e is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. This makes the phrase smoother to pronounce.

The English translation says "did not break." Where is the French word for "did"?

French doesn't use a word like "did" or "do" for negative sentences. n'a pas cassé literally translates to "has not broken." French simply uses this "has not done" structure for what we call "did not do" in English.

Why is the word for "this" cette instead of ce?

cette is the feminine singular form of "this." We use it here because fenêtre (window) is a feminine noun. If the noun were masculine, like garçon, you would use ce (as in ce garçon).