"I cannot imagine it."
Translation:Je ne peux pas l'imaginer.
46 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
On that page, there is a speech about the "ne explétif" which is not the case here, where we have the "ne littéraire":
-"What I call the ne littéraire is the phenomenon in literary writing (and, to a much lesser extent, spoken French) whereby certain verbs and constructions need ne but not pas in order to be negative. The use of pas in these constructions is not prohibited, simply optional.
Here's the page about that. There are seven verbs which can be used without the "pas" in literary French.
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/negation_form_3.htm
Also, Sitesurf made a good point on another discussion about how in spoken informal French you drop the "ne" instead because it can be quite hard to hear anyway, unlike "pas".
494
"Je peux pas..."This is spoken French. When the French native speaks fast they will tend to miss out words. Written French is another matter - unless you're writing dialogue.
I've read prior discussions on this thread about how it is OK to say, in spoken french: "Je ne peux l'imagine" (that is, dropping the 'pas'). However, can someone categorically tell me whether it is bad grammar construction to say or to write "Je ne peux pas l'imaginer". If as Sitesurf says "The use of 'pas' in these constructions is not prohibited, simply OPTIONAL", then I say "Je ne peux pas l'imaginer" should be accepted as an optional answer.
494
What happened to me was the sentence "I cannot imagine it" appeared. You had to construct the French translation of this sentence from the French words given. The word "pas" was missing from the list of words. I couldn't understand why it was missing.
494
"Ne littéraire": stuff and nonsense! There is no excuse. It think it is an oversight by duolingo. For French learners who are beginners it should have included the word "pas". Je ne peux pas l'imaginer. That is correct. I think duolingo should change it to include "pas" so as to prevent confusion for beginners.