# EN: Je n'ai vu aucune voiture



## N'gapeth

"Je n'ai vu aucune voiture."

Does this mean:

I did not see any cars.

or

I did not see any car.


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## Zack.PA

I don't think there is a difference in english, except that the second one is not correct.

SO : _I didn't see any car*s*._


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## N'gapeth

But I thought that "aucun" is only used with singular words. 

"Je n'ai aucunes amis"

(Incorrect because it is used with plural "amis")

Also, voiture is singular because it is not les voitures, correct?


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## Zack.PA

Okay, in french, aucune is used with singular, but not in english.

Je n'ai aucun ami = I have no friends.
Je n'ai vu aucune voiture = I didn't see any cars.


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## misterk

I disagree with Zack.PA.  "I did not see any car" is a fine sentence in English.
 - _Did you see that green car in the driveway?
 - What are you talking about? I didn't see any car._


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## Zack.PA

Yes, but i don't think it means what he meant in french. Its quite different from "Je n'ai vu *aucune* voiture".
What misterk said is very specific, because it's an answer to a question about a specific car.

Edit : exemple = i didn't see any (sort of) car : no yellow car, no green car...


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## OLN

N'est-ce pas comme en français (je n'ai pas vu de voiture / je n'ai pas vu de voitures) : ça dépend du nombre de voitures qu'on s'attendait à voir ?
I didn't see any car [at all]

I went for a walk and I didn't see any cars in the street.
I went for a walk and I didn't see any green convertible.


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## LART01

OLN said:


> N'est-ce pas comme en français (je n'ai pas vu de voiture / je n'ai pas vu de voitures) : ça dépend du nombre de voitures qu'on s'attendait à voir ?
> I didn't see any car [at all]
> 
> I went for a walk and I didn't see any cars in the street.
> I went for a walk and I didn't see any green convertible.



Hello
cars are countable so I guess _any cars _is fine


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## jann

_Aucune_ does convey a singular idea... and we do the exact same thing in English:

1. _Je n'ai vu aucune voiture_ = I didn't see a single car.

Compare:

2. _Je n'ai pas vu de voiture_ = I didn't see a car.  
3. _Je n'ai pas vu de voitures_ = I didn't see any cars.

In English, (2) focuses the negation on the verb.  There is only one possible car in question, and the point is that you either did or -- in this case -- did not see that particular vehicle.

In English, (3) focuses the negation on the number of cars.  You could possibly have seen any number of cars, but actually there were zero.  The implication is not that you failed to notice but that there actually were none at all to be percieved (i.e., the roads were empty of cars).

In English, (1) is like (3) except that it conveys the idea of "zero" or "none" even more emphatically.  It is a stronger negation.


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## Zack.PA

I don't agree with jann.

_I didn't see a single car_ , I would say in french : "_Je n'ai pas vu une seule voiture_"
And I would definitely not say : _Je n'ai vu aucune voiture*s*_


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## caelum

Yeah, for me they're the same.

I didn't see any car (the one you were talking about) = Je n'ai vu aucune voiture.
I didn't see any cars (not a single one) = Je n'ai vu aucune voiture.

In English the singular is used to speak about a car that was referenced by someone else and the plural is used in general. This one sentence conveys both in French, even if there are more eloquent and different ways of saying it, also.


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## leprixdepaix

As a general rule ( careful though, almost every rule in French has an exception), nouns take on singular articles while they are used in negative forms. So, because ne... aucun(e) is negative, where you'd say "I didn't see any car*s*" in English, this would translate as:
_Je n'ai vu aucune voiture. 
_Which carries the meaning of both not seeing any car in particular and not seeing any cars in general. It's just something that isn't as complex in French! 
Bon courage.


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## Maître Capello

jann said:


> _Aucune_ does convey a singular idea... […] 1. _Je n'ai vu aucune voiture_ = I didn't see a single car.





Zack.PA said:


> I don't agree with jann.
> _I didn't see a single car_ , I would say in french : "_Je n'ai pas vu une seule voiture_"


To me, _Je n'ai pas vu une seule voiture_ would be the translation of "I didn't see *any* single car," which is not the same as "I didn't see *a* single car." At any rate, in French, _Je n'ai vu *aucune* voiture_ and _Je n'ai *pas* vu de voiture_ are more or less interchangeable – unless you stress the negation.



> And I would definitely not say : _Je n'ai vu aucune voiture*s*_


_Aucune voiture*s*_ doesn't make any grammatical sense. It should be either _aucune voiture_ or _aucune*s* voiture*s*_. The latter is not recommended by grammars though, because "_aucune_ does convey a singular idea" as pointed out by Jann.



caelum said:


> I didn't see any car (the one you were talking about) = Je n'ai vu aucune voiture.
> I didn't see any cars (not a single one) = Je n'ai vu aucune voiture.


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## jann

I'm afraid I must not have been clear.  

In my post, I was comparing *structures*, not translations: In response to N'gapeth's follow-up question, I was trying to confirm that _aucune_ is indeed singular.  Lest the (entirely possible) translation of singular _je n'ai vu aucune voiture_ with plural "I didn't see any cars" cause confusion, I pointed out that English -- like French -- has a singular negation structure as well, "I didn't see a single car."

I my clarifying notes I mentioned a couple of details about the usage and nuance of the three different English negations I mentioned... but nowhere did I make any comments about the corresponding usage/emphasis/nuance of the French negations.  I never said that you should translate a given negation a given way, nor  did I mean to imply a strict one-to-one correlation between particular  French and English negations. 

P.S.  "I didn't see any single car" is extremely unlikely in English.  I am not even sure (?) it's grammatical...


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