ne...que

The ne...que construction is known as a 'restriction' and is used to express 'only'. While it shares the same meaning as the adverb seulement, they have different syntactic rules and cannot always be used interchangeably (for example, seulement can stand alone). In written and formal French, the full ne...que is very common. In everyday spoken French, as with all negative structures, the ne is usually dropped, leaving just the que.

1. Placement:
The ne (or n' before a vowel) precedes the conjugated verb. The que (or qu') is placed directly before the word or phrase it restricts. This is different from ne...pas, where pas usually follows the verb immediately. When an infinitive follows a conjugated verb, ne goes before the conjugated verb, and que goes before the restricted element. In a pure infinitive clause, ne precedes the infinitive, but que still goes directly before the restricted element.

• Je ne mange que des pommes. (I only eat apples.)
• Je ne veux manger que des pommes. (I only want to eat apples.)
• Il a décidé de ne boire que de l'eau. (He decided to only drink water.)

Moving que changes the meaning of the sentence:

• Il ne lit des livres que le soir. (He reads books only in the evening.)
• Il ne lit que des livres le soir. (He reads only books in the evening.)

2. Compound Tenses:
In tenses like the passé composé, que does not have a fixed slot like pas. It simply goes directly before the restricted element, wherever that element is in the sentence: Il n'a mangé que du pain. (He only ate bread.) or Il n'a mangé du pain que le soir. (He ate bread only in the evening.)

3. With Prepositions:
When the restricted noun is part of a prepositional phrase, que must be placed before the preposition: Je ne parle qu'à Paul. (I only speak to Paul.)

4. Restricting a Verb:
To restrict an action (a verb), you cannot just put que before it. Instead, you must use the construction ne faire que + infinitive: Il ne fait que dormir. (He only sleeps / He does nothing but sleep.)

5. Restricting the Subject:
Note that ne...que cannot directly restrict the subject of a sentence. To say 'Only Paul is here', you often use il n'y a que: Il n'y a que Paul qui soit ici. In formal French, il n'y a que... qui/que often triggers the subjunctive because it expresses an exclusive or subjective idea. However, in everyday spoken French, the indicative is strongly preferred: Il n'y a que Paul qui est ici. Alternatively, you can simply use the adjective seul: Seul Paul est ici.

6. Articles:
A crucial rule is that unlike ne...pas, which changes indefinite articles to de, ne...que keeps the original articles (un, une, des, du). This is because ne...que is a restriction, not a true negation.

7. Not Only (ne... pas que):
You can combine pas and que to mean 'not only': Je ne mange pas que des pommes. (I don't only eat apples.)

8. Casual Speech:
In informal spoken French, the ne is almost always dropped, leaving just the que: J'ai que deux euros. This is a universal feature of casual spoken French that applies to all negative structures (like ne...pas or ne...jamais), not just ne...que. You can learn more about this in dropping ne in casual speech.