Do you use 'de' after a negative when there are 2 verbs?

Tina K.C1Kwiziq community member

Do you use 'de' after a negative when there are 2 verbs?

Do you use 'de' after a negative when there are 2 verbs? e.g. 'I don't like doing judo = Je n'aime pas faire de judo' or 'I don't like eating meat = Je n'aime pas manger de viande' or 'I don't like doing sport = Je n'aime pas faire de sport'.I thought you did but the only translation I could find was in Google translate and they put 'du' or 'de la'."
Asked 6 years ago
AurélieKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Bonjour Tina !

That's a very interesting question !

I've had to test myself trying the different sentences before being sure of my answer :)
So the answer is: you do keep du/de la/des in such cases.

Let look at this sentence:
Je n'aime pas manger du pain

Here the negation applies to the action "manger du pain" rather than just on the object "du pain".
-> you don't like "eating bread" rather than just "bread" here.
Therefore it's considered as one fixed verbal group, and won't change in the negative.

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Tina K.C1Kwiziq community member
Thank you so much. I was thinking that about the action. I have seen it written with 'de' and asked a French woman a few days ago what she would say and she thought you could say either but I will use the partitive article as you and Google say.

Do you use 'de' after a negative when there are 2 verbs?

Do you use 'de' after a negative when there are 2 verbs? e.g. 'I don't like doing judo = Je n'aime pas faire de judo' or 'I don't like eating meat = Je n'aime pas manger de viande' or 'I don't like doing sport = Je n'aime pas faire de sport'.I thought you did but the only translation I could find was in Google translate and they put 'du' or 'de la'."

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