Personne ne ..., rien ne ... = No one, nothing (negation) in French

In French, to express no one does something and nothing happens, you use a specific negative structure: personne ne ... and rien ne ... .

Negative sentences with "no one ... / nothing ..." in French

Look at these examples:

Rien ne me dérange.Nothing bothers me.

Personne n'est encore arrivé.  No one has arrived yet.

Personne ne mange.No one is eating.

Rien n'est arrivé.Nothing arrived.
Nothing happened.

Rien ne s'est passé.Nothing happened.

Note that the negative expressions ne... personne (e.g. I see no one) and ne ... rien (e.g. I see nothing) can be reversed into personne ne ... (e.g. No one/Nobody sees) and rien ne ... (e.g. Nothing comes).

Note that you still need to use the negative ne with personne or rien.
You cannot say "Personne vient" or "Rien est bien".

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Examples and resources

Rien ne s'est passé.Nothing happened.
Personne ne mange.No one is eating.
Personne n'est encore arrivé.  No one has arrived yet.
Rien n'est arrivé.Nothing arrived.
Nothing happened.
Personne ne veut embrasser quelqu'un qui a mauvaise haleine. Beurk !Nobody wants to kiss someone with bad breath! Yuk!
Personne n'aime attendre dans le froid, et on est en février !No one likes to wait in the cold, and it's February!
Rien ne me dérange.Nothing bothers me.
Thinking...