aucun
/o.kœ̃/
The French word for "none" is aucun.
aucun is used to indicate that not one person or thing out of a group is being referred to.
How does it change in a sentence?
When used in a standard negative sentence, aucun is used in conjunction with the particle ne to express "not any" or "none". To say "none of" a specific group, use the construction aucun(e) de followed by that group. The form changes to aucune when you are referring to a feminine noun.
How do you pronounce it?
/o.kœ̃/
Did you know?
- Despite its modern meaning of 'none', aucun is built from the Latin words aliquī and unus, meaning 'some' and 'one'.
- In casual spoken French, the mandatory negative particle ne is frequently dropped, meaning aucun carries the entire weight of the negation on its own.
- If you use aucun in a sentence without the negative particle ne, you are no longer saying 'none' or 'not any', but are actually saying 'each' or 'any' in a positive sense.
Examples in context
- Je n'en aime aucun.I like none of them.This sentence shows how to use aucun to say you like none of something.Tatoeba #13504 by Archibald, translation #273733 by CK
- Aucun de nous ne l'a vu.None of us saw it.This sentence demonstrates the use of aucun to mean none of a specific group (us).Tatoeba #5933956 by Aiji, translation #3130330 by CK
- Il n'y en a aucun à moi.None of these are mine.This sentence shows how to use aucun to indicate that none of a group of things belong to the speaker.Tatoeba #6863615 by GB3, translation #6863396 by CK
- Je n'ai aucun livreI have no books
- Elle n'a aucune idéeShe has no idea
- Je n'ai rien du tout à mangerI have nothing at all to eat
- Il n'a rien comprisHe didn't understand anything
- Aucun de mes amis ne viendra à la fête.None of my friends will come to the party.
- Je suis désolé, il n'y a rien à boire ici.I'm sorry, there is nothing to drink here.
- Rien du tout ne s'est passé selon le plan.Nothing at all went according to the plan.
- 136 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Chloé and Nathan are looking at some books in a shop.
- ChloéEst-ce que tu as trouvé un livre intéressant ?Did you find an interesting book?
- NathanNon, je n'en ai trouvé aucun.No, I didn't find any.
- ChloéC'est dommage, aucun de ces titres ne te plaît ?That's a shame, do none of these titles please you?
- NathanNon, aucun ne m'intéresse.No, none of them interest me.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry aucun, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries aucun, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
