Learn French: Sa vie privée ne regarde personne. - His private life is nobody's business.

Sa vie privée ne regarde personne.

His private life is nobody's business.

Breakdown of Sa vie privée ne regarde personne.

Questions & Answers about Sa vie privée ne regarde personne.

Doesn't regarde usually mean "looks at" or "watches"?

Yes, but it has a second very common meaning: "to concern" or "to be the business of." The phrase ça ne te regarde pas is the standard way to say "that is none of your business." In this sentence, ne regarde personne literally means it "concerns nobody."

Why is there a ne before the verb but no pas after it?

In French, when you use a negative word like personne (nobody/no one), jamais (never), or rien (nothing), it takes the place of pas. The negative pair here is ne ... personne, which wraps around the verb regarde.

The translation says "His private life." Why does the sentence use the feminine sa instead of the masculine son?

In French, possessive adjectives like son and sa agree with the gender of the noun being owned, not the person who owns it. Because vie (life) is a feminine word, you must use sa, even if the life belongs to a man.

If I wanted to say "Her private life," how would this sentence change?

It wouldn't change at all! Because sa just matches the feminine word vie, the phrase sa vie can mean either "his life" or "her life." You would have to rely on the wider context of the conversation to know who is being talked about.