Talk:jamais

Someone has corrected "Est-ce que tu es jamais..." to "N'es-tu jamais...". I'm not sure about this. To my mind, the former means "Have you ever..." while the latter is "Have you never...". Would a native French-speaker please adjudicate. Thanks -- Paul G 14:43, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I agree with you, so I changed it back, but maybe an other example is called for. Polyglot 15:07, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I've checked it too and added a usage note. However the rule "ever = jamais", "never = ne ... jamais" might not be so clear-cut. Other examples would probably help clarify this.

I think that even when it means "never", the "ne" can be omitted in colloquial French. Certainly this is true of the "ne" in "ne...pas". Collins French Dictionary includes this example (as a complete sentence): "Y'a jamais penalty" (colloquial) = "no way was that a penalty". Amatlexico 23:14, 26 Mar 2003 (UTC)