Learn Hardcore French: Aucun étudiant ne veut rater cet examen important. - No student wants to fail this important exam.

So grammatically you need ne, and aucun … ne is not considered a “double negative” the way it would be in English; it is simply the normal way to form that negative.

Why is it aucun étudiant (singular) when in English we say no students (plural)?

In French, aucun literally means not even one / no single one. Because of that, it is normally followed by a singular noun:

aucun étudiant = no (single) student / not one student
aucune question = no question / not a single question

This is just how French structures this negative idea. English prefers a plural (no students), but French uses singular with aucun.

If you want to be explicit about a group, French has another structure:

Aucun des étudiants ne veut rater cet examen.
None of the students wants to fail this exam.

Here étudiants is plural because of des, but aucun is still grammatically singular and the verb is singular.

Why is the verb veut singular if the idea is that no students (plural) want to fail?

The verb agrees with the grammatical subject in French, not with the idea in English.

The grammatical subject here is aucun étudiant, which is:

singular (un étudiant)
masculine

So the verb must be 3rd person singular:

Aucun étudiant ne veut rater…
(veut, not veulent)

Compare:

Tous les étudiants veulent rater… (plural subject → veulent)
Aucun étudiant ne veut rater… (singular subject → veut)

Even in Aucun des étudiants ne veut rater…, the verb stays singular because aucun is the true grammatical subject.

Does aucun change form for feminine nouns?

Yes. Aucun agrees in gender (and usually stays singular) with the noun it modifies:

masculine singular: aucun étudiant
feminine singular: aucune étudiante
masculine singular noun: aucun problème
feminine singular noun: aucune réponse

Examples:

Aucune étudiante ne veut rater cet examen.
No (female) student wants to fail this exam.
Aucune question n’est stupide.
No question is stupid.

What is the difference between Aucun étudiant ne veut rater… and Aucun des étudiants ne veut rater…?

Both mean roughly None of the students want(s) to fail, but there is a nuance:

Aucun étudiant ne veut rater…
General statement about students as a category. It can sound like “No student (ever) wants to fail this exam” (either in general, or in a particular situation).
Aucun des étudiants ne veut rater…
Refers to a specific group of students already known in the conversation.
Literally: None of the students (in this group) wants to fail this exam.

So aucun étudiant is more general; aucun des étudiants is more “of this particular group we are talking about.”

Why isn’t it ne veut pas rater if the sentence is negative?

There are two different structures:

Negative subject:
- Aucun étudiant ne veut rater cet examen.
  No student wants to fail this exam.
- The “negative idea” is in the subject (aucun étudiant).
Negative verb:
- L’étudiant ne veut pas rater cet examen.
  The student does not want to fail this exam.
- The subject is positive (the student exists), but what he wants is negated.

So ne … pas would give you does not want, whereas aucun étudiant ne … gives you no student wants. They are not interchangeable.

Why do we use rater here? How is it different from manquer or échouer à?

All three can relate to an exam, but they are used differently:

rater un examen
Very common, informal‑neutral. Means to fail an exam (you took it and didn’t pass).
- Il a raté son examen de maths.
échouer à un examen
More formal. Also means to fail an exam.
- Il a échoué à l’examen.
manquer un examen
Usually means to miss an exam (not to fail it, but not to attend it).
- Elle a manqué l’examen parce qu’elle était malade.

In your sentence, rater is natural because the idea is: no student wants to fail this important exam, not “miss” it by not going.

Why is it cet examen and not ce examen?

Examen is masculine, so you might expect ce examen, but French changes the form of ce before a masculine noun starting with a vowel or silent h:

ce
- consonant:
  ce livre, ce professeur
cet
- vowel or silent h:
  cet examen, cet homme, cet hôtel
cette
- any feminine noun:
  cette table, cette étudiante
ces for plural:
ces examens, ces étudiants

So you must say cet examen to make pronunciation smoother.

Why is important placed after examen? Can it go before?

Most French adjectives come after the noun:

un examen important
un livre intéressant
une décision difficile

Some very common adjectives often go before the noun (the so‑called BANGS group: beauty, age, number, goodness, size), like petit, grand, beau, nouveau, etc.

Important normally goes after the noun:

un examen important
une réunion importante

If you said un important examen, it would sound poetic, emphatic, or old‑fashioned, and is not usual in everyday speech. So cet examen important is the normal word order.

Where does ne go when there is a main verb and an infinitive, like veut rater?

In French negatives, ne is placed before the conjugated verb, not before the infinitive:

Il ne veut pas rater l’examen.
- ne before veut (conjugated verb)
- pas after veut
- rater stays unchanged after it

In your sentence, the structure is different (aucun … ne), but the same placement for ne applies:

Aucun étudiant ne veut rater cet examen important.
- aucun étudiant = negative subject
- ne placed before veut (conjugated verb)
- rater = infinitive that follows veut

You would not say ⛔ Aucun étudiant veut ne rater….

How is aucun pronounced, and is there a liaison with étudiant?

Pronunciation tips:

aucun: roughly [oh‑KUN] in English spelling
- au = like oh
- cun = nasal vowel, like un in French (you don’t fully pronounce the final n)
étudiant: [é‑tu‑djɑ̃] (final t is silent, nasal an at the end)

There is a liaison in careful speech:

aucun étudiant → [oh‑kœ̃‿ne‑tu‑djɑ̃]
- So you hear a [n] sound linking aucun and étudiant.

Similarly, cet examen has a liaison:

cet examen → [set‿eg‑za‑mɛ̃]
- You hear a [t] between cet and examen.