I've noticed several times when watching French programmes that sometimes a sentence such as this is said:
"On ne peut le controler"...We can't control him/it.
Surely it should be "On ne peut pas le controler".
At first I just thought it was slang, in the same way the "ne" is often dropped in negatives...but I did see it some quite "high brow" programmes and only ever with the verb pouvoir. Is there some kind of rule to this or what? I'm a bit confused.
Moderator note: Multiple threads merged to create this one. See also FR: "ne" without "pas" - "ne" explétif et "ne" littéraire.
"On ne peut le controler"...We can't control him/it.
Surely it should be "On ne peut pas le controler".
At first I just thought it was slang, in the same way the "ne" is often dropped in negatives...but I did see it some quite "high brow" programmes and only ever with the verb pouvoir. Is there some kind of rule to this or what? I'm a bit confused.
Moderator note: Multiple threads merged to create this one. See also FR: "ne" without "pas" - "ne" explétif et "ne" littéraire.
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