Questions & Answers about En dehors de lui, personne n'est venu.
The lesson is about sauf and à part, so why does this sentence use en dehors de?
En dehors de is another way to say 'apart from' or 'except'. It literally means 'outside of', but in this context, it functions exactly like à part or sauf. You could easily rewrite this sentence as À part lui, personne n'est venu or Sauf lui, personne n'est venu. Why do we use lui here instead of il?
In French, whenever a pronoun comes immediately after a preposition (like de, avec, pour, or phrases like en dehors de), you must use a stressed pronoun. The stressed pronoun for 'he' or 'him' is lui. Why is there an n' before the verb but no pas?
The word personne (nobody) is a negative word itself. When it acts as the subject of the sentence, it pairs with ne (or n' before a vowel) to create the negative meaning. You never use pas with personne, because that would be a double negative. If we know we are talking about a group of women who didn't come, would venu need an extra 'e' or 's' for agreement?
No, it stays exactly as venu. When used as a negative pronoun meaning 'nobody', personne is always treated grammatically as masculine and singular, regardless of who is in the group. This is different from the feminine noun une personne, meaning 'a person'. Just a quick refresher: why is it est venu and not a venu?
The verb venir (to come) is one of the special verbs that always uses être as its helper verb in the passé composé (often remembered as a verb of motion or via the Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp list). Therefore, it is conjugated as est venu, not a venu. Learn En dehors de lui, personne n'est venu and more in French
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