More on personne vs aucun

neville n.B1Kwiziq community member

More on personne vs aucun

R.e. this question:

Tous les gosses y vont, mais ________ prend le train.

User "Lolli" in Jan 2018 asked if "personne ne" would also be correct in this sentence (in addition to the "correct" answer of "aucun ne"). I think that in spoken conversation, "personne ne" would be acceptable and convey equivalent meaning. There hasn't yet been a definitive response as to whether "personne ne" is acceptable grammatically. 

Can anyone provide definitive guidance on this? 

(Maybe the kwiziq website logic can't accommodate unanticipated responses?)

Asked 5 years ago
Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

In my understanding, "personne ne" also is a statement about people not in the group, whereas "aucun/e" refers to the people in the group only.

Tous les gosses y vont, mais personne ne prend le train. -- All the guys go there, but no one took the train. (Not even people apart  from the "guys").

Tous les gosses y vont, mais aucun ne prend le train. -- All the guys go there, but none (of them) took the train.

neville n. asked:

More on personne vs aucun

R.e. this question:

Tous les gosses y vont, mais ________ prend le train.

User "Lolli" in Jan 2018 asked if "personne ne" would also be correct in this sentence (in addition to the "correct" answer of "aucun ne"). I think that in spoken conversation, "personne ne" would be acceptable and convey equivalent meaning. There hasn't yet been a definitive response as to whether "personne ne" is acceptable grammatically. 

Can anyone provide definitive guidance on this? 

(Maybe the kwiziq website logic can't accommodate unanticipated responses?)

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your French level for FREE

Test your French to the CEFR standard

Find your French level
Thinking...