À ce rythme, on ne risque pas de finir avant la fin de la semaine.

English Translation

At this rate, we’re not likely to be done before the end of the week.

I would have translated this English sentence into French as: “À ce rythme, on risque de ne pas finir avant la fin de la semaine.” Is this incorrect / awkward in French? I know a similar structure, i.e., front-loading the negative, happens with “Il faut que” and wondering if it has to always be expressed this way in a complex sentence.

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Your version is perfectly understandable and would certainly work too but there’s a pretty significant nuance I think:

“À ce rythme, on ne risque pas de finir…” → “At this rate we’re unlikely to be done…”

“À ce rythme, on risque de ne pas finir…” → “At this rate we may not be done…”

Basically I find your version a bit weaker and expressing a lower risk: “there’s a chance we’re not going to make it” while the proposed translation is more like “at this rate we’ll never make it”.

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