rien

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See also: Rien, ríen, and rieŋ

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French rien, from Old French rien, from Latin rem (“thing”). Compare Catalan res (“nothing”) or Galician ren (“nothing”).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

rien

  1. nothing
    • Antoine Lavoisier
      Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, tout se transforme.
      Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.
    Je n’ai besoin de rien d’autre.
    I need nothing else.
  2. (archaic) anything
    • 1630, François de Malherbe, Le traité des bienfaits de Sénèque, III, 10:
      En tous les bienfaits d’importance, la preuve ne peut avoir de lieu ; car il n’y a bien souvent que deux qui en sachent rien .
      In any good deed of importance proof is unnecessary; for perfectly often there are only two knowing anything of it.

Usage notes

  • Word order: When used as the direct object of a transitive verb, rien is placed in differing positions depending on what other elements are present in the sentence.
    • rien comes after a verb in simple tense.
      Je ne fais rien. ― I'm not doing anything.
    • As the direct object of a verb in compound tense, rien usually comes between the auxiliary and participle.
      Je n’ai rien dit. ― I didn't say anything.
      • When followed by a complément, rien usually comes after the participle element.
        Je n’ai dit rien de tel. ― I said no such thing.
    • rien precedes a verb in the infinitive.
      Je ne veux rien faire. ― I don't want to do anything.
    • rien can either precede or follow the adverbial pronouns y or en with the second option being the more literary.

Synonyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • ⇒ Louisiana Creole: arien
  • ⇒ Saint Dominican Creole French: arien

Noun

rien m (plural riens)

  1. a nothing
    petits riens – little things, little nothings

See also

References

  1. ^ “rien”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
  2. ^ Banque de dépannage linguistique

Anagrams

Middle Dutch

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old Dutch *rīan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīhan.

Pronunciation

Verb

riën

  1. to sew together, to put a thread through

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

Further reading

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French rien.

Noun

rien f (plural riens)

  1. thing (miscellaneous item)

Descendants

References

  • Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (rien)

Old French

Alternative forms

  • ren (Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

From Latin rem, accusative of rēs.

Pronunciation

Noun

rien oblique singular, f (oblique plural riens, nominative singular riens, nominative plural riens)

  1. thing; object
  2. being; creature

Pronoun

rien

  1. thing
  2. (used with "ne") nothing

Descendants

Tumleo

Noun

rien

  1. water

References

  • Stephen Adolphe Wurm, New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study (1976)
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