Advanced negation (ne...ni...ni, personne ne..., rien ne...)

*Il **n'*aime ni le café ni le thé. (He likes neither coffee nor tea.) Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont venus. (Neither Paul nor Marie came.)

You already know the basic negative forms — ne... plus, ne... jamais, ne... rien, ne... personne — and how rien/personne behave as the subject of a sentence. This article goes further: combining two things with ne... ni... ni, putting ni... ni itself in subject position, and stacking more than two negative words in the same sentence.

Quick shortcut: ne... ni... ni negates two things at once, one ni per item; as a subject, it's ni X ni Y ne + verb, with no pas; several negative words can stack in one sentence, usually in the order plus/jamais before rien/personne.

Ne... ni... ni: neither... nor

Ne... ni... ni negates two (or more) things together, with one ni placed right before each item:

• *Il **n'*aime ni le café ni le thé. (He likes neither coffee nor tea.)
• Elle ne parle ni anglais ni espagnol. (She speaks neither English nor Spanish.)
• *Je **n'*ai ni faim ni soif. (I'm neither hungry nor thirsty.)

With a noun that would normally take an indefinite or partitive article, that article disappears entirely after ni — not even reduced to de, just dropped:

• ✅ Elle **n'**a ni frère ni sœur., never ❌ ni de frère ni de sœur. (compare the plain negation: Elle n'a pas de frère.)
• ✅ Je **n'**ai ni patience ni temps., never ❌ ni de patience ni de temps.

A definite article, on the other hand, stays exactly as it would in a positive sentence — ni... ni doesn't touch it:

• *Il **n'*aime ni le café ni le thé. (the le/la stays, just like in Il aime le café.)

A quick recap: personne ne... and rien ne... as the subject

You already know that rien and personne can be the subject of a sentence, with ne before the verb and no pas:

• Personne ne répond. (Nobody answers.)
• Rien ne bouge. (Nothing moves.)

Ni... ni as the subject

Ni... ni follows exactly the same subject pattern. Ne still appears before the verb, but there's no pas — the frame isn't wrapped around anything:

• Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont venus. (Neither Paul nor Marie came.)
• *Ni l'un ni l'autre **n'*a raison. (Neither one is right.)
• ✅ Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont venus., never ❌ Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont pas venus. (no pas — same rule as rien ne... and personne ne...)

Combining more than two negative words

Plus, jamais, rien and personne can stack together in the same sentence, not just in the plus jamais pair you already know. The usual order is plus/jamais before rien/personne:

• Je ne vois plus jamais personne. (I never see anyone anymore.)
• Il ne dit plus jamais rien. (He never says anything anymore.)
• *Elle **n'*a plus jamais revu personne de sa famille. (She never saw anyone in her family again.)

Rien/personne + de + adjective; personne d'autre

Just like quelqu'un de and quelque chose de, a descriptive adjective after rien or personne is introduced by de and is normally masculine singular:

• *Je **n'*ai rien de nouveau à dire. (I have nothing new to say.)
• *Il **n'**y a **personne d'*intéressant à cette fête. (There's no one interesting at this party.)

Personne d'autre (nobody else) is a separate, fixed expression rather than an instance of the de + adjective pattern above — but it follows the same never-plural rule:

• ✅ Il **n'**y a **personne d'**autre., never ❌ personne d'autres. (d'autre stays singular even when the missing people would be plural)

Common mistakes

• ❌ Elle n'a de frère ni de sœur. → ✅ Elle n'a ni frère ni sœur. (after ni, an indefinite/partitive article is dropped entirely, not reduced to de)
• ❌ Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont pas venus. → ✅ Ni Paul ni Marie ne sont venus. (as a subject, ni... ni needs only ne, no pas)
• ❌ Il n'aime ni café ni thé. → ✅ Il n'aime ni le café ni le thé. (a definite article stays after ni, unlike an indefinite one)
• ❌ Il n'y a personne d'autres. → ✅ Il n'y a personne d'autre. (d'autre never takes a plural -s)

Quick check

Key takeaways

• Ne... ni... ni negates two things together, one ni before each item; an indefinite or partitive article after ni is dropped entirely, but a definite article stays.
• As a subject, ni... ni takes only ne, no pas — the same pattern as rien ne... and personne ne....
• Plus, jamais, rien and personne can stack in one sentence, usually in the order plus/jamais before rien/personne (ne... plus jamais personne).
• After rien or personne, a descriptive adjective is introduced by de and is normally masculine singular (rien de nouveau, personne d'intéressant). Personne d'autre is a separate fixed expression.