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Personne n'habite ici, sauf un corbeau qui regarde.

Personne n'habite ici, sauf un corbeau qui regarde.
Nobody lives here, except a raven that watches.
From Lesson 255:Exclusion prepositions (sauf, à part)·French

Questions & Answers about Personne n'habite ici, sauf un corbeau qui regarde.

Can I use à part instead of sauf in this sentence?
Yes, you can! sauf and à part both mean "except" or "apart from" and are generally interchangeable. You could say ..., à part un corbeau qui regarde with the exact same meaning.
Why is there no pas after the verb if the sentence is negative?
The word personne (nobody) is a negative word itself. In French, when you use personne as the subject, it pairs with ne (here shortened to n') before the verb: Personne n'habite (Nobody lives). Adding pas would be an incorrect double negative.
Why do we use qui instead of que for "that" in qui regarde?
You use qui when the word "that" or "who" is the subject of the next verb (the raven is the one doing the watching). You use que when it's the object (for example, the raven that I see = le corbeau que je vois).
In English we often say "except a watching raven" or "a raven watching." Could I use a French word ending in -ant here?
While you might be tempted to use the present participle regardant, French strongly prefers using a relative clause with qui + a conjugated verb for this type of description. ...un corbeau qui regarde sounds much more natural to French ears.

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