Sans rien

Paul F.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Sans rien - “without nothing“. In English this would be a double negative and would therefore theoretically mean “with something”. But in French would we always say “sans rien” or could we also say “avec rien”?

This question relates to:French dictation exercise "A very specific order"

Dictation exercise B1

Asked 4 years ago

Like0Answer2

CécileKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

Hi Paul,

Correct me if I am wrong but I always thought that

sans rien

would be

without anything

in English

meaning -

with nothing added to it?

You would not say 'avec rien' in French.

Bonne Continuation!

Like34 years ago

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

French is full of double negatives. In fact, the standard way of negating something is by doing it twice: ne..pas, ne..jamais, ne..rien. So sans rien shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Like34 years ago

Paul F. asked:

Sans rien

Sans rien - “without nothing“. In English this would be a double negative and would therefore theoretically mean “with something”. But in French would we always say “sans rien” or could we also say “avec rien”?

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