Breakdown of Avant de sortir, je ne trouve ni ma veste ni mon manteau.
je
I
ne
not (used before the verb)
trouver
to find
mon
my (mon, ma, mes)
sortir
to go out
la veste
the jacket
le manteau
the coat
avant de
before (+ infinitive)
ni
nor
Questions & Answers about Avant de sortir, je ne trouve ni ma veste ni mon manteau.
Where do we put the different parts of ne... ni... ni... in this sentence?
Just like standard negation, the ne goes right before the conjugated verb (trouve). Then, you place a ni directly in front of each item you are excluding—in this case, ma veste and mon manteau.
Why is there no pas after the verb trouve?
Why do we keep ma and mon? I thought words like 'a' or 'some' disappear after ni.
You only drop indefinite and partitive articles (un, une, des, du, de la) after ni. Because ma and mon are possessive adjectives (which act like definite articles), they must stay. If the English were 'I find neither a jacket nor a coat', the French would drop the articles: je ne trouve ni veste ni manteau.
Why do we use avant de instead of just avant before sortir?
When you want to say 'before doing [an action]', French requires the preposition de between avant and the infinitive verb. You use just avant when a noun follows, like avant le repas (before the meal), but avant de when a verb follows, like avant de sortir (before going out).
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