Negation for beginners

Negation is the act of making a term, phrase, or clause negative or opposite. In this article, you will learn how to make negations.

Intermediate Advanced

What Is Negation?

If your teacher thinks you cheated on your exam and you say that you did not, what you said is called negation.

Two Negative Words

Here, we will learn two basic words in English that are used to make a sentence negative:

No
Not

No

We can use 'no' as a negative answer to a yes/no question.

A : Is there any cake left for me?

B : No! Sorry!

We can use 'no' before a noun to make a negative sentence and to show negation.

We have no time to celebrate.

He has no friends.

Not

'Not' is the most common word that we use to show negation.

I am not a student.

Its short form is 'n’t' and it often comes after an auxiliary verb or a modal verb to make it negative.

She isn't working on Fridays.

I can't sing.

Compound-complex Sentences

A compound-complex sentence is comprised of at least two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses. Let's get to know it in detail!

Word Order

Word order refers to the order or arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. In order to study them in more detail, take a look at this article!

Cleft Sentences

Cleft sentences are complex sentences that have a meaning we can express by a simple sentence. They are used to emphasize one part of a clause.

Negation: Verbs & Clauses

Negation is the process that turns an affirmative statement into a negative one. In this lesson, we will learn about ways of creating negative sentences.

Negation: Nouns & Pronouns

In this lesson, we will learn about negative structures with nouns and pronouns. Do we have negative pronouns? How can we make a negative noun?

Negation: Adverbs

In this lesson, we will learn about negative structures with adverbs. Do we have negative adverbs?

Download LanGeek app for free

Langeek