negative

[Mme. L]

How do you say, " Nobody is wearing a t-shirt."

 

Personne ne porte un t-shirt.

or

Personne ne porte pas de t-shirt.

 

OR...can they both be right?  I have heard that the double negative in French can sometimes be used for emphasis.

[Erwan]

Personne ne porte pas de t-shirt = tout le monde porte un t-shirt (everybody is wearing a t-shirt)

Concerning your phrase, you can sayPersonne ne porte de t-shirt. French people would understand your first proposition but it sounds a bit weird without the context.

You can see this : Personne ne porte un t-shirt en cette saison

[Neil Coffey]

In French, "double negatives" (meaning "pas" plus other negative words) are used, but unlike some cases in English, the "pas" genuinely negates the value of the other negatives.

So, e.g.:

"Il n'y a personne" = "there's nobody"

"Il n'y a pas personne" = "there's not nobody", i.e. "There's somebody"

"Il n'y a que toi" = "there's just you"

"Il n'y a pas que toi" = "there's not just you"

In addition to Erwan's comments about your particular example, I wonder if your intended meaning would actually be expressed in more natural French as "Il n'y a personne en t-shirt"?

[Neil Coffey]

P.S. Other than "pas", you can also combine other negative words 'cumulatively' , in a similar way to combining words beginning with "any-" in English. For example:

Je ne verrai jamais plus personne = I'll never see anybody ever again.