Discover the French sentence "Je n'y crois pas"

Get prepared to learn all the things you want to know about the basic French phrase "Je n'y crois pas". More precisely, this includes a detailed definition of what it is and how you can use it in a conversation with an audio example. Plus, we also added some useful informations like slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example, synonym and more!

French to English

Translation : I don't believe in it
Register : Neutral - Basic

How to pronounce

Slow

Normal

IPA : / ʒə ni kʁwa pa /

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What does it mean?

Definition

"Je n'y crois pas" is a shortened way of saying "Je ne crois pas à cela" which literally means:

Je → I
Ne crois pas → Don't believe
à cela → To that (In that)

Let's focus on how "ne (...) à cela" became just "n'y". In French "y" refers to "it" and " n' " is a short version for "ne", which is the negation word (like "not").

That's why, even if it's impossible to translate "n'y" directly in English, it means something like "not it". So when we say "Je n'y crois pas" we are literally saying "I not it believe" to express "I don't believe it".

And what about "pas"? Why should we add it if we already added the negation "ne"? Because that's how you express negation in French, by using the combination: ne + verb + pas.

Even if you will discover below that we don't always respect this rule...

How to use it

If someone asks you if you believe in ghosts, you can say: "Non, je n'y crois pas, et toi ?" (No, I don't believe it, and you?).

But if you do believe it, you can say: "Oui, j'y crois". Since there is no more negation, we deleted " n' " and "pas".

Fun fact

Because we are lazy, we even have a shorter way to say that, and it's: "J'y crois pas".

But wait, I just told you that "Je n'y" is the negative form and "J'y" the positive form, so why use the positive one to express something negative?!

Once again, we are lazy so we consider that having "pas" after the verb is a solid enough proof that we are using a negation. So we just skip saying " n' " to save us one syllab.

Replacing "Je n'y" by "J'y" is something you will find often, especially when French people talk. Another example: "J'y vais pas" instead of "Je n'y vais pas" (I am not going).

Synonyms / Related

Je ne crois pas à ça. ("I don't believe in that")
J'arrive pas à y croire. ("I can't believe it")
J'y crois pas. ("I don't believe it")

↓ Example in a story with French audio ↓

Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.

Chirurgie esthétique

Plastic surgery

OliviaThéo, qu'est-ce que tu penses de la chirurgie esthétique ?

Théo, what do you think of plastic surgery?

ThéoEuh, je ne sais pas. Pourquoi ?

Uh, I don't know. Why?

OliviaUne amie a fait une opération récemment. Et je pense essayer aussi.

A friend recently had an operation. And I am thinking of trying too.

ThéoQuel genre d'opération elle a fait ?

What kind of operation did she do?

OliviaUne rhinoplastie.

Rhinoplasty.

ThéoC'est une opération pour le nez ?

Is it an operation for the nose?

OliviaOui.

Yes.

ThéoMais pourquoi ? Ton nez est parfait !

But why? Your nose is perfect!

OliviaJ'ai toujours voulu le faire, je n'aime pas mon nez.

I've always wanted to do this, I don't like my nose.