Nous ne voulons pas mourir.

In standard French, basic negation is usually formed with ne ... pas around the conjugated verb.

So in Nous ne voulons pas mourir:

• nous = we
• ne ... pas = not
• voulons = want
• mourir = to die

The negative part wraps around voulons because that is the verb being conjugated.

Because voulons is the conjugated verb, and in French the negative structure ne ... pas usually goes around that verb.

So:

• Nous voulons mourir = We want to die
• Nous ne voulons pas mourir = We do not want to die

French does not normally place pas before the verb the way English uses not.

Because the subject is nous, meaning we.

The verb vouloir = to want, and its present tense forms are:

• je veux = I want
• tu veux = you want
• il/elle/on veut = he/she/one wants
• nous voulons = we want
• vous voulez = you want / you want (formal or plural)
• ils/elles veulent = they want

So with nous, you must use voulons.

Because after vouloir in this sentence, the second verb stays in the infinitive.

This is very common in French:

• Je veux manger = I want to eat
• Nous voulons partir = We want to leave
• Nous ne voulons pas mourir = We do not want to die

English does something similar with want + to + verb. French usually uses vouloir + infinitive without a separate word for to before the second verb.

Yes, mourir is an irregular verb.

Its infinitive is mourir = to die, but its conjugated forms do not follow a perfectly regular pattern. For example:

• je meurs = I die
• tu meurs = you die
• il meurt = he dies
• nous mourons = we die
• vous mourez = you die
• ils meurent = they die

In this sentence, though, you do not need a conjugated form, because after voulons it stays infinitive: mourir.

Yes, in informal spoken French, many speakers drop ne.

So you will often hear:

• Nous voulons pas mourir

However, in standard written French and in careful speech, Nous ne voulons pas mourir is the correct full form.

So as a learner:

• Use the full form in writing and formal situations.
• Recognize the shortened form in conversation.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

noo nuh voo-lohn pah moo-reer

A few notes:

• nous sounds like noo
• ne is often a light nuh
• voulons has a nasal ending, roughly voo-lohn
• pas sounds like pah
• mourir sounds like moo-reer

The r sound in French is made farther back in the throat than in English.

No elision happens here.

Elision happens when ne comes before a vowel sound, for example:

• je n’aime pas = I do not like

But here ne comes before voulons, which begins with v, so it stays ne:

• Nous ne voulons pas...

There is also no contraction like English don’t. French keeps the words separate.

Yes. That is very common in everyday French.

Both can mean we do not want to die:

• Nous ne voulons pas mourir = more formal or standard
• On ne veut pas mourir = very common in everyday speech

Modern spoken French often uses on where English would use we.

Because French infinitives do not always need a separate word corresponding to English to.

In English:

• We want to die

In French:

• Nous voulons mourir

After verbs like vouloir, aimer, pouvoir, and devoir, the next verb usually comes directly as an infinitive:

• Je veux partir = I want to leave
• Nous pouvons entrer = We can enter
• Elle aime chanter = She likes to sing

So mourir already means to die as an infinitive form.

It would be:

Nous voulons mourir.

That simply removes ne ... pas and leaves the rest of the sentence the same.

So:

• Nous voulons mourir = We want to die
• Nous ne voulons pas mourir = We do not want to die

A few common ways are:

• Nous ne voulons pas mourir ?
  This can work in speech with rising intonation, but it is less common as a true question.

More natural options are:

• Ne voulons-nous pas mourir ? = Do we not want to die?
  This is formal and uses inversion.

• Est-ce que nous ne voulons pas mourir ? = Do we not want to die?
  This is grammatically clear but can sound a bit heavy.

• On ne veut pas mourir ?
  In casual speech, this could mean We don’t want to die?

Both can refer to we, but they are used differently.

• nous = standard, formal, written, careful speech
• on = extremely common in everyday spoken French

Compare:

• Nous ne voulons pas mourir.
• On ne veut pas mourir.

Both mean we do not want to die, but the second one sounds more conversational.

Often yes, especially in basic negation with ne.

But pas originally means something like step, and in modern French it has several uses. In this sentence, though, it is simply part of the negative structure ne ... pas.

So here you should understand it as part of do not / not rather than as a separate word with its own standalone meaning.