FR: ne pas venir de + infinitif - negative of recent past

[tucoxn]

I would like to hear how you think the recent past should be negated:

Je viens de travailler.
Do you think these are negated correctly in French?

Je ne viens pas de travailler.

How about placement of the adverb in the negative?
Je ne viens pas de travailler beaucoup?
or
Je ne viens pas beaucoup de travailler?


An example of how to use the recent past can be found here:
laits (dot) utexas (dot) edu/tex/gr/tap1 (dot) html

Thanks!

 

[maybe4ever]

I would like to help, but your English is making things difficult.

It's not very good English to say, I have not just worked a lot. It doesn't really make sense.

Most people would just say: I haven't worked a lot, recently.
This is best translated into French as:
Je n'ai pas travaillé tant dernièrement.

 

[tucoxn]

I'm most interested in the French rather than the English translation.

Thanks for your help!

 

[maybe4ever]

I was explaining why other people might not be answering your question.

 

[tucoxn]

maybe4ever, Thanks. I edited my post.

 

[Fred_C]

Hi,
your question does not concern grammar, but logic :
Whereas you use a single clause and an adverb in English to express that you have just done something, we use in French two clauses : the main clause is "je viens de" and the infinitive clause "travailler".
you can put your negation or your adverb in any clause you want, it will mean different things. To help you understand, imagine that "Je viens de" means "I have just finished", and "travailler" is "working".
If you put the negation in the first clause, as "Je ne viens pas de travailler", it will mean "I have not just finished working". If on the other hand, you put it in the second clause : "Je viens de ne pas travailler", it will mean "I have just finished not working", which does not mean much, but states so little.

Now for adverbs, like "beaucoup", of course you need them in the second clause : "Je viens de beaucoup travailler", (I have just finished working much), because if you put it in the first clause, "je viens beaucoup de travailler" means exactly the same as "I have much finished working", that is : nothing.

 

[tucoxn]

Fred C,

Thanks for your response.

So, would the following sentence be grammatically and logically correct:

Je ne viens pas de beaucoup travailler.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Maître Capello]

So, would the following sentence be grammatically and logically correct:

Je ne viens pas de beaucoup travailler.

That sounds really odd to say the least! I think we would barely ever use such a construction; we'd rather say something like:

Je n'ai pas beaucoup travaillé récemment.

 

[Fred_C]

Fred C,

Thanks for your response.

So, would the following sentence be grammatically and logically correct:

Je ne viens pas de beaucoup travailler.

Thanks so much for your help!

Yes, it is grammatically and logically correct.
I do not think it is so odd.

(Personally, I think it is far more frustrating for foreigners that natives constantly rephrase what they are saying than just correct what is wrong.)