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I came across this sentence while checking what là-dedans meant:

On implique personne d'autre là-dedans

And according to the translation it means We aren't going to involve any more people in this but I don't see any negative adverbs in the sentence. I'm still a novice at the language but I thought such a sentence would use n'on pas instead. Why is it not using negative adverbs to turn an affirmative statement into a negative statement?

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The sentence should rather be written on n'implique personne d'autre là dedans which happens to be pronounced exactly the same way.

The negative is given by the ne ... personne d'autre compound, but can be reduced to personne d'autre in spoken French, e.g.:

On ne mêle personne d'autre à ça. Standard French

On mêle personne d'autre à ça. Colloquial French

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  • Thanks, that clears up a few doubts but I have a question, how should I know if there is a reduced "ne" in a sentence? it may be basic but if I don't see a negation, I immediately try to make sense of it as if it were an affirmative sentence.
    – Neo Herakles
    Commented May 28, 2018 at 23:27
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    You know if a sentence is negative because at least one of the splitted negative parts remains. (il ne pleut pas = Il pleut pas, je ne vois personne = je vois personne). Note that your sentence is not completely negative but more a restrictive statement. Nobody else is involved in it by us
    – jlliagre
    Commented May 28, 2018 at 23:39

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