Learn French: Cette maison est hantée, personne n'habite ici. - This house is haunted, nobody lives here.

Cette maison est hantée, personne n'habite ici.

This house is haunted, nobody lives here.

Breakdown of Cette maison est hantée, personne n'habite ici.

not (used before the verb)

Questions & Answers about Cette maison est hantée, personne n'habite ici.

Why is it personne n'habite instead of personne n'habite pas?

In French, the negative word personne (nobody/no one) takes the place of pas. You still need ne (which shortens to n' before a vowel sound) before the verb, but adding pas as well would be incorrect.

Can personne act as the subject of the sentence?

Yes! When "nobody" is the one doing the action, you start with Personne, followed by ne (or n'), and then the verb. That is why "nobody lives" translates to personne n'habite.

Why does hantée end with an extra e?

The word maison (house) is a feminine noun. Because the adjective hanté (haunted) is describing the house, it needs an extra e at the end to match the feminine gender.

Why use cette instead of ce for "this"?

To say "this" or "that" in French, you use ce before masculine nouns and cette before feminine nouns. Since maison is feminine, it must be cette maison.