Negation beyond ne… pas
CEFR B2 · part 1
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
The past before the past: le plus-que-parfaitForming the plus-que-parfait with the imperfect of the auxiliary, and using it for what…Compound relatives: lequel, auquel, ce dontChoosing the relative when a preposition comes first, contracting with à and de, and…Present participle, gérondif and verbal adjectiveTelling apart the three -ant forms: the gérondif with en, the present participle that…Depuis, pendant, il y a, dans, enChoosing among the five depending on whether you mean a starting point, a finished…Stressed pronouns and pronoun orderUsing moi, toi, lui, eux after prepositions, in comparisons and for emphasis; and…Accents and the cedillaPlacing é, è, ê and ç correctly, and knowing that in French an accent changes the sound…The rule, in three lines
French negation comes in two pieces: ne and its partner. The partner changes the meaning: ne… plus (no longer), ne… jamais (never), ne… rien, ne… personne, ne… aucun, ne… ni… ni. And ne… que does not negate: it means «only».
The usual slip. Reading ne… que as a negative. «Je n'ai que dix euros» is not «I don't have ten euros»: it is «I have only ten euros», the opposite of how it looks.
Why it catches you out. English negates with one word and has no second half at all, so you write the ne and forget what comes after — or drop the ne, which is what French people do when speaking but never when writing.