ne pas

Question

Why, in “Nous courons pour ne pas manquer notre train.”, do we have “ne pas manquer” and not “ne manquer pas”? I didn’t know that “ne pas” is valid.

Accepted Answer

Hi Brian, 
It is because the verb manquer which is  in the infinitive so  'ne pas' comes before the verb and is not separated in this case.
Je vous prie de ne pas parler en mangeant = Please do not speak while eating 
Ne pas se pencher par la fenêtre = Please don't lean out of the window
take a look at the following Kwiziq lesson for more examples -
https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/negation-of-infinitives-indirect-speech
Hope this helps!