Breakdown of Il s'ennuie, il n'a rien fait hier.
il
he
avoir
to have
ne
not (used before the verb)
faire
to do, to make
hier
yesterday
rien
nothing (ne ... rien)
s'ennuyer
to be bored
Questions & Answers about Il s'ennuie, il n'a rien fait hier.
Why is rien placed before fait? I thought it would be il n'a fait rien.
In the past tense (passé composé), rien works just like pas. It hugs the helping verb, which is a here. The pattern is always ne + helping verb + rien + past participle. That gives us il n'a rien fait.
Where did the pas go? Why isn't it il n'a pas rien fait?
When you use a negative word like rien (nothing), it replaces pas (not). Using both together would make an incorrect double negative. The pair ne... rien is a complete negative structure on its own!
Why is there an s' in Il s'ennuie?
In French, getting bored is an action you do to yourself! It uses the reflexive verb s'ennuyer. While we say 'He is bored' in English, the French sentence literally means 'He bores himself', which is why we need the reflexive pronoun s' (a shortened form of se).
The dictionary verb is s'ennuyer, so why does s'ennuie have an 'i' instead of a 'y'?
Verbs ending in -uyer change their y to an i in the present tense for the je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles forms. This is a common spelling rule for these 'boot verbs' that helps the spelling match how the word is naturally pronounced.
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