Learn French: Le témoin n'a rien vu. - The witness saw nothing.

Le témoin n'a rien vu.

The witness saw nothing.

Breakdown of Le témoin n'a rien vu.

avoir

to have

not (used before the verb)

voir

to see

rien

nothing (ne ... rien)

Questions & Answers about Le témoin n'a rien vu.

Why does rien go right in the middle of a and vu?

In the passé composé, the negative word rien (nothing) acts a lot like pas. It squeezes between the conjugated helper verb (a) and the past participle (vu). This is different from personne (nobody), which goes at the very end of the sentence.

Why isn't there a pas in this sentence?

In French, ne ... rien is a complete negative pair meaning "nothing" or "not anything". It completely replaces ne ... pas. If you used both together, it would be a double negative sounding like "didn't see not nothing".

Is vu an irregular past participle?

Yes, it is the past participle of the verb voir (to see). Because voir is an irregular verb, you just have to memorize that its past participle is vu.

What if the witness was a woman? Would it be la témoin?

The noun témoin is masculine. Even if the witness is a woman, you still use le témoin in standard French.