Breakdown of L'escorte protectrice n'a abandonné ni le président ni le cortège.
avoir
to have
ne
not (used before the verb)
protecteur
protective
le président
the president
ni
nor
abandonner
to abandon, to give up
l'escorte
the escort (f)
le cortège
the motorcade
Questions & Answers about L'escorte protectrice n'a abandonné ni le président ni le cortège.
I notice there is no pas here. Is this n' a ne explétif like the ones we've been learning about?
No, this is a standard negative sentence! It uses the ne ... ni ... ni ... (neither ... nor ...) structure. Just like with ne ... jamais (never), you drop the pas when using ni. The n' here expresses actual negation, whereas a ne explétif is a formal stylistic word that doesn't actually negate the verb.
If I wanted to say 'didn't abandon the president or the motorcade,' could I use pas?
Why do we keep the article le before président and cortège? Don't articles sometimes disappear after ni?
Definite articles (le, la, les) are always kept after ni. It is only the indefinite articles (un, une, des) and partitive articles (du, de la) that disappear. For example, if it were 'neither money nor glory,' it would be ni argent ni gloire, dropping the partitive articles.
Why is the feminine adjective protectrice and not protecteuse?
Adjectives ending in -teur generally change to -trice in the feminine if they are related to nouns ending in -tion or -toire (like protection). Adjectives that change to -teuse are usually derived directly from a French verb without a corresponding -tion noun, such as chanteur becoming chanteuse (from chanter).
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