Questions & Answers about D'abord, je ne reçois plus rien sur mon smartphone.
Why isn't there a pas in this negative sentence?
When you use negative words like plus (anymore/no longer) or rien (nothing/anything), they replace pas. You never use pas together with them. So the combination ne ... plus rien literally means "not anymore anything". Does the order of plus and rien matter here?
Yes, the order is strict. When combining negative words, adverbs of time like plus (anymore) or jamais (never) always come before negative pronouns like rien (nothing) or personne (nobody). So it must be ne ... plus rien, never the other way around. Where would plus rien go if this sentence were in the past tense (passé composé)?
Both plus and rien are short negative words, so they would both wrap around the helping verb, going directly before the past participle. It would look like this: Je n'ai plus rien reçu (I didn't receive anything anymore). What is the infinitive verb for reçois and why does it have a cedilla (ç)?
It comes from the irregular verb recevoir (to receive). The cedilla (ç) is added under the letter c to keep the soft "s" sound when it is followed by the letter "o" or "a". Without it, the word would be pronounced with a hard "k" sound. Is smartphone the standard word to use in French?
Yes, like many modern technology terms, the English word was adopted directly into everyday French as a masculine noun (un smartphone). You will also frequently hear un téléphone portable or simply un portable. Learn D'abord, je ne reçois plus rien sur mon smartphone and more in French
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