Salut !
Ma situation financière est pire que je ne le pensais.
Google translates the above as:
My financial situation is worse than I thought.
Is the 'ne' in the French sentence above optional? Also, shouldn't the second part of the French sentence be 'pire que je ne la pensais' as the thing being referred to is feminine?
Merci !
The ne is optional is spoken French. You might as well drop le or both:
Ma situation financière est pire que je ne pensais.
Ma situation financière est pire que je pensais.
The feminine is not used, at least in modern French. The pronoun le refers to the whole phrase because the sentence does not say penser la situation pire but penser que la situation est pire.
However, you would say, speaking of the situation:
Je la pensais pire.
