The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[nablator]

If I've traced the etymologies correctly, the Italian cognate of "il" is "il", while "pas" corresponds to "passo". Even though it is not the preferred Italian, "Il non mi piace passo de tutto," is the way to do this kind of reading.

Haha. "Ne... pas" is the negative and "du tout" (not "de") means "at all". The etymology of "pas" is too crazy to translate word for word.

Its use as an auxiliary negative adverb comes from an accusative use (Latin nec… passum) in negative constructions – literally “not… a step”, i.e. “not at all” – originally used with certain verbs of motion. In older French other nouns could also be used in this way, such as ne… goutte (“not… a drop”) and ne… mie (“not… a crumb”), but in the modern language pas has become grammaticalized.

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