Negation
Negation is the act of making a term, phrase, or clause negative or opposite. In this article, you will learn how to make negations.
What Does Negation Mean?
Types of Negative Words
We have different negative words to form negations:
- Negative adverbs such as: not, neither, barely, neither/nor, hardly, rarely, never…
- Negative determiners such as: no, neither
- Negative pronouns such as: nothing, nobody, no one, none…
Negation in Adverbs
There are some adverbs in English that carry a negative meaning and using them in affirmative sentences makes the whole sentence negative and there is no need to use negative verbs anymore. The most important adverb that is used as a negative marker is 'not'. Other negative adverbs are hardly, little, never, only, scarcely, and seldom.
In this example, it means almost never.
I do
There's
I
Warning
Negative Determiners
The term 'no' is used as a determiner and also as a negative marker in affirmative sentences. The term 'no' can be used with either countable or uncountable nouns, but usually when it comes to countable nouns, 'no' is followed by plural countable nouns. Here are the examples:
I received
Negative Pronouns
Negation in Sentence
Mostly the negative marker places before the word it tends to negate. Usually to negate verbs and adjectives we should use "negative adverbs", to negate nouns we should use "negative determiners", and about the negative pronouns like no one or nobody we can see that they are already negative so we don't need to negate them again.
How to use "Not"
To Be Verbs
If our sentence includes ''to be'' verbs we just put "not" in front of the predicate noun or adjective. Usually this way will place "not" after the to be verb.
She is
He was
Auxiliary Verb "Have"
If our sentence includes auxiliary verb "have", we will do the same as we do with all of the perfect tenses, we will place "not" right after the different forms of have (have, had, has) and before the main verb participle.
He has
They have
I promise, I
[forms of have] + not + [participle]
Tip!
As you know we have auxiliary verb have and action verb have, let's remember to not confuse them.
The action verb "have" uses "do" just like other action verbs.
They do not
He doesn't
Modal Verbs
If our sentence includes modal verbs like should, can, must and so on, we should place "not" after the modal verb and before the main verb.
They
She
He
[modal verb] + not + verb (bare infinitive)
All the Other Verbs
If our sentence includes any other verb rather than what we mentioned we should use the auxiliary verb "do" to negate it.
He
She
I
How to use "Neither-Nor" or Neither Without Nor
As you can see "neither-nor" is the negative form of "either-or" and it is also used in the same way. As we said "neither-nor" is already in its negative form so we do not need to use "not" or any other negative markers in our sentence. Let's see some examples:
If we want to use "neither" without the "nor" we should place it before the noun to show the meaning of "not this one or the others".
We could also use "neither" as adverb like the following examples:
I don't like to go to parties and
She cannot sleep and
It can be used as a pronoun too, let's see:
I bought two dresses but
She sang two songs,
Forming Negative Words
To negative a word, we can use the prefixes such as: de-, dis-, un- and suffixes such as –less. Here are some examples:
Use
Verbs of Uncertainty
Verbs such as 'think,' 'believe,' 'suppose', etc. which imply a feeling of uncertainty are usually used negatively and the sentence after them is usually an affirmative sentence. Check out the examples:
He
With the Verbs 'Wish' and 'Hope'
The verbs 'hope' and 'wish' are not usually negated and instead, the sentence after them is usually in negative form, but not always. Sometimes both sentences can be affirmative. Check out the examples:
I
I
I
In this example, both statements are used affirmatively.
Negative Interrogative Clauses
To make negative questions all you have to do is to negate the auxiliary verb of the question. You can also use negative pronouns or adverbs in echo questions as a negative interrogative clause. Here are the examples:
Why
Negative Non-finite Clauses
To negate non-finite clauses all you have to do is to add 'not' before the non-finite clause or you can also use an adverb before non-finite clauses. Using negative pronouns or determiners is also possible to make a negative non-finite clause. Check out the sentences:
Making
In this example, a negative determiner is used to negate the non-finite clause.
Negative Imperatives
Imperatives are kind of non-finite clauses because they are made of bare infinitives. To negate imperatives all you have to do is to add the phrase 'do not' (also contracted as don't) at the beginning of the imperative sentence, or you can also use never as a negative marker for imperative sentences. Remember using negative pronouns to make negative imperatives is not correct. Here are the examples:
Emphasis
We can use negation to emphasis on something by using "at all" and "whatsoever", they almost have the same meaning, but "whatsoever" is stronger.
There is
The place had no light
We can also use negation to be more polite at times by emphasis.
Do you mind if I use your bathroom? –
Have I given you any trouble? –no none
Non-standard English
'Ain’t' is the negative form of the verb to be in the present form and also it is the negative form of the verb to have as well. Check out the examples:
I
She
When we use a negative marker with another one in the same sentence or when we use a negative marker with a negative verb a double negation is created. Sometimes in everyday English native speakers use double negations, but it is not grammatically correct. Check out the examples:
✗ I
✗ I
Review
Negation is the act of negating a sentence, using negative markers or negative structures. Here are the important negative categories.
Negative Markers
- negative adverbs
- negative pronouns
- negative determiner
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