Learn Hardcore French: Je ne veux pas parler du passé. - I do not want to talk about the past.

Historically, ne used to be enough, then pas was added for emphasis and became standard. In modern careful French, you normally keep both in writing and in formal speech.

Can you drop ne in spoken French?

Yes, very often in informal spoken French, ne is dropped but pas stays:

Formal/standard: Je ne veux pas parler du passé.
Informal/spoken: Je veux pas parler du passé.

This is extremely common in everyday conversation.

However:

In writing (essays, exams, anything formal), keep ne.
In speech exams or formal presentations, it’s safer to keep ne too.

Why is it veux parler and not something like veux de parler?

The verb vouloir (to want) is followed directly by an infinitive, with no preposition:

Je veux parler. = I want to talk.
Je veux manger. = I want to eat.
Je veux partir. = I want to leave.

You do not say:

✗ je veux de parler
✗ je veux à parler

So the correct structure is simply:

Je ne veux pas + infinitive
→ Je ne veux pas parler du passé.

Why is parler in the infinitive and not conjugated?

French works like English here:

English: I do not want to talk about the past.
(want is conjugated; to talk is infinitive.)
French: Je ne veux pas parler du passé.
(veux is conjugated; parler is infinitive.)

After vouloir, the second verb stays in the infinitive, because vouloir is the verb that carries the tense and the subject:

Je veux parler.
Il veut parler.
Nous voulons parler.

Parler never changes in these structures; only vouloir changes.

Why is it du passé instead of de le passé?

Du is the contraction of de + le:

de + le = du
de + la = de la
de + l’ = de l’
de + les = des

Since passé is masculine singular (and here treated like le passé = “the past”), you get:

parler de + le passé → parler du passé

Some more examples:

parler du film = parler de + le film
parler de la musique
parler de l’avenir
parler des problèmes = parler de + les problèmes

Why do you say parler du passé and not something like parler le passé?

In French, parler uses different structures depending on the meaning:

parler de + noun = to talk about something
- parler du passé = to talk about the past
- parler de politique = to talk about politics
- parler de toi = to talk about you
parler + language (no preposition) = to speak a language
- parler français
- parler anglais

So to say “talk about the past”, you must include de:

✗ parler le passé (wrong)
✓ parler du passé (correct)

Why is passé masculine here?

In this sentence, passé is a masculine noun meaning “the past”:

le passé = the past (masculine singular)
therefore du passé = de + le passé

You don’t really choose the gender; you just learn nouns with their gender:

le passé (m.)
le futur (m.)
le présent (m.)

There is also an adjective passé (past, out of date), but here it is clearly the noun le passé.

Where exactly do ne and pas go when there is an infinitive like parler?

With vouloir + infinitive, the negation surrounds the conjugated verb, not the infinitive:

Je ne veux pas parler du passé.

Structure:
Je (subject)
ne (first part of negation)
veux (conjugated verb)
pas (second part of negation)
parler (infinitive)
du passé (complement)

You should not say:

✗ Je veux ne pas parler du passé. (only in very special, emphatic contexts)
✗ Je ne veux parler pas du passé. (wrong word order)

In normal French, always put ne … pas around veux, not parler.

How would you say “He doesn’t want to talk about the past” or “We don’t want to talk about the past”?

You just change the subject and conjugate vouloir accordingly:

Je ne veux pas parler du passé.
I do not want to talk about the past.
Il ne veut pas parler du passé.
He does not want to talk about the past.
Elle ne veut pas parler du passé.
She does not want to talk about the past.
Nous ne voulons pas parler du passé.
We do not want to talk about the past.
Vous ne voulez pas parler du passé.
You (singular formal / plural) do not want to talk about the past.
Ils / Elles ne veulent pas parler du passé.
They do not want to talk about the past.

Everything else in the sentence stays the same.

Can you replace du passé with en, like Je ne veux pas en parler?

Yes. En can replace de + noun, including du passé:

Je ne veux pas parler du passé.
Je ne veux pas en parler. = I don’t want to talk about it / about that.

Rules:

en goes before the infinitive but after pas:
- Je ne veux pas en parler.
It only works if the thing you are replacing is introduced by de:
- parler du passé → en parler
- parler de toi → en parler
- parler de mon passé → en parler

You can use en when the context makes it clear what “it” refers to.

How would the sentence change with other negatives like jamais or plus?

The position stays the same: the negative word replaces pas and still goes after veux.

Common patterns:

ne … jamais = never
- Je ne veux jamais parler du passé.
  I never want to talk about the past.
ne … plus = no longer / not anymore
- Je ne veux plus parler du passé.
  I no longer want to talk about the past.
ne … rien = nothing / not … anything
(goes where pas would go)
- Je ne veux rien dire. = I don’t want to say anything.

Spoken French often drops ne:

Je veux plus parler du passé. (informal for Je ne veux plus…)

How is Je ne veux pas parler du passé pronounced naturally?

In careful standard French:

Je ne veux pas parler du passé
/ʒə nə vø pa paʁle dy pase/

Sound by sound:

Je = /ʒə/
ne = /nə/
veux = /vø/ (final x is silent)
pas = /pa/
parler = /paʁle/ (final -er = /e/)
du = /dy/
passé = /pase/ (final -é = /e/)

In everyday casual speech you often hear:

Je veux pas parler du passé.
/ʒə vø pa paʁle dy pase/

Or even:

J’ veux pas parler du passé.
/ʒ vø pa paʁle dy pase/

There are no required liaisons in this sentence.