History of the negation in French

Let’s look very far into the past, at the time of Indo-European. At that time, to say "no", we simply used "ne". But over time, this "ne" became less strong. So, European languages began to use it less. As we always want to be understood, we had to make this "ne" stronger.

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In ancient Latin, "ne" became "noenum", which means "not one". But even "noenum" lost its strength over time and became "nôn". When French was born, "nôn" became the "ne" we know today. It gave phrases like "je ne vois ton chat" or "il ne mange du gâteau".

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At the beginning of French, the "ne" alone was not strong enough. So we added little words like "pas", "point" and "mie". It was then said "je ne marche pas, "je ne vois point" or "il ne mange mie". Today, we no longer use "mie" and "point" is rare, but "pas" is very common. For example, they say "je ne ris pas" or "il ne veut pas venir".

Nowadays, especially orally, we often drop the "ne" and just say "pas". For example, "je veux pas" or "il cuisine pas". But even "pas" can become less strong. So we add words like "du tout" and "absolument", which gives "pas du tout" and "absolument pas".

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These changes take time and come naturally. Nobody decides these changes, they happen because the language adapts to the people who speak it. We cannot know how negation will be in fifty or one hundred years, but one thing is certain: history will repeat itself again and again!