What Are Negative Pro-forms?
Negative pro-forms are used to talk about the absence (non-existence) of people or things.
Negative Pro-forms: Types
The English no-series words and some other words are considered inherently negative (also called inherent negative universal), which means they can make a sentence negative on their own.
Tip!
There are some uncommon negative words that are rarely used. Here is the list:
- nowhence (adverb of source)
- nowhither (adverb of purpose)
- nowhen (adverb of time)
- nowise (adverb of manner)
Negative Words in Positive Statements
Negative words are inherently negative, that is why they do not need another negative maker in a sentence. We use 'no one', 'nobody', 'nothing', and 'nowhere' with an affirmative singular verb. For example:
I knocked on the door but
I have
Negative Words in Negative Statements
Since the negative pro-forms are inherently negative, they negate the whole sentence and using another negative marker in the same sentence would form a double negative which is grammatically unacceptable.
✗ didn't come. →
✗ You shouldn't smoke nowhere
Negative Pro-forms in Questions
Negative pro-forms are not used in questions. Instead non assertive pro-forms are used to form interrogatives.
Is nobody
Does noone
When negative-pro-forms are used in a sentence, the verb remains positive, but the overall meaning of the clause becomes negative. So, the question tag must be positive.
There's
Negative Words: Agreement
Negative pro-forms are considered singular and accordingly take singular verbs.
'Neither" can be used as a pronoun or a determiner to refer to two people or things. In both cases it is followed by a singular verb. When it is used as a determiner, the following noun must also be singular.
I can think of two solutions, but
'No' and 'None of' are also negative determiners, but the difference between them is that 'no' is followed by a singular noun and singular verb while 'none of takes a plural noun or pronoun and a singular verb.
In informal English, a plural verb might be used after 'none of'.
None of us
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