Nous ne voulons pas mourir.

not

Breakdown of Nous ne voulons pas mourir.

• nous: we
• vouloir: to want
• mourir: to die

Questions & Answers about Nous ne voulons pas mourir.

Why are there two negative words, ne and pas?

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.

Why is voulons in the middle of ne ... pas?

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.

Why is it voulons and not veut or voulez?