“Swallowed” isn’t the right way to describe it. That implies that in people’s heads they think they’re saying “ne” but they don’t because they’re speaking too f

“Swallowed” isn’t the right way to describe it. That implies that in people’s heads they think they’re saying “ne” but they don’t because they’re speaking too fast, or whatever. In reality, “pas” (without “ne”) is simply the unmarked, natural way of forming negation in spoken French. The extra “ne” is relatively uncommon (except in writing which is a whole different ball game) and normally signifies a slightly higher level of formality. As an aside, “pas” was originally a noun meaning “step” (and still does have this meaning) – quite an odd etymology for a negative particle!