French word of the week: jamais

In our weekly blog, we study a French word to help improve your vocabulary and understanding of the language. In today’s edition, we’re looking at jamais.

You can hear the correct pronunciation by listening to the audio clip below:

Let’s start with the most important part of learning a new word in another language, the translation. In English, jamais can mean never, ever or forever. You always need to look at the context around the word to understand how to translate it correctly in English. We will look at plenty of examples in just a moment.

Before we delve in, you should also know that jamais is an adverb in French. If you need some extra information on what this means, check out our Easy Learning French Grammar section on adverbs. Ready to see how this word works in action?

To begin with, one of the most common constructions using jamais is around a verb to create a negation. Our page on making a sentence negative offers more insight if you’re not aware of this already.

ne … jamais never

J’apprends le français depuis onze mois mais je ne suis jamais allé en France. I’ve been learning French for eleven months, but I’ve never been to France.

Ma sœur ne vient jamais rendre visite à nos parents. My sister never comes to visit our parents.

Ça fait vingt ans que nous habitons à Glasgow, et nous ne déménagerons jamais. It’s been twenty years since we’ve been living in Glasgow, and we’ll never move away.

On ne sait jamais ! You never know!; Who knows!

Now that we’ve covered this useful construction, let’s look at further examples where jamais can be used and translated in different ways:

« Avez-vous mangé des moules ? » « Jamais. » “Have you eaten mussels?” “Never.”

Jamais encore. Never again.

comme jamais like never before

presque jamais hardly ever

Jamais de la vie ! No way!; Never!

mieux vaut tard que jamais better later than never

à (tout) jamais forever (and ever); evermore

As-tu jamais voulu avoir des enfants ? Have you ever wanted to have children?

Si jamais vous avez besoin d’une chambre, vous pouvez rester chez moi. If you ever need a room, you can stay at my house.

Even if you never find the time to practise your French, just studying the ins and outs of one word each week can be really helpful. So, if you ever need a place to sharpen up your vocabulary, keep coming back to read our weekly blogs!

Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.