Negative Sentences

A negative sentence (or statement) states that something is not true or incorrect. A negative adverb has to be added in order to negate or “cancel” the validity of the sentence. This “negation” element is created according to the following general rule.

The Negation Rule: In English, in order to claim that something is not true, you form a negative sentence by adding the word not after the first auxiliary verb in the positive sentence. If there is no auxiliary verb in the positive sentence, as in the Present Simple and Past Simple tenses, then you add one (in both these cases, the auxiliary verb do).

Pay attention:

• When an auxiliary verb (including modals) is used, the main verb is not inflected (no s or ed ending), meaning that either the base form or past participle is used.

• The verb to be uses a different negation pattern.

Review the following table for examples of negation in English. Some examples use the contracted forms more used in informal writing and speech, and some others use the full forms.

Tense	Negative Element + Contracted Forms	Examples
Present Simple	do+not = don't does+not = doesn't	I do not play. She doesn't play.
Past Simple	did+not = didn't	I didn't play.
Present Progressive	am + not (*no amn't) is+not = isn't are+not = aren't	I am not playing. He is not playing. We aren't playing.
Past Progressive	was+not = wasn't were+not = weren't	I wasn't playing. They were not playing.
Present Perfect	have+not = haven't has+not = hasn't	You haven't played. She has not played.
Present Perfect Progressive	have+not+been= haven't been has+not+been = hasn't been	I have not been playing. She hasn't been playing.
Past Perfect	had+not = hadn't	You hadn't played.
Past Perfect Progressive	had+not+been = hadn't been	She hadn't been playing.
Future Simple	will+not = won't	I won't play.
Future Perfect	will+not+have = won't have	He will not have played.
Conditional	would+not	She wouldn't play.
Conditional perfect	would+not+have	She wouldn't have played.
Modals	can + not = can't or cannot (formal) should+not = shouldn't	I can't play. I cannot play. We shouldn't play.

Note:

In informal writing settings, you can contract the auxiliary verb with either the sentence subject or the word not. In formal writing settings, refrain from contracting any words.

She is not playing. [formal]

She isn't playing. = She's not playing. [informal]

Definition:

A grammatical construction that contradicts (or negates) part or all of a sentence's meaning.

In standard English, negative clauses and sentences commonly include the negative particle not or the contracted negative n't.

Negative words are commonly formed by adding the prefix -un. Other negative affixes include a-, de-, dis-, in-, -less, and mis-.

Examples and Observations:

"I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.

(Groucho Marx)

"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."

(Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, 2007)

"I have some rope up here, but I do not think you would accept my help, since I am only waiting around to kill you."

(Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, 1987)

Ain't

"Together with negative concord, ain't is perhaps the best known shibboleth of non-standard English, and this already implies that it is highly stigmatized. Ain't is a negative form of unclear historical origin and of very wide usage--both grammatically and geographically. Probably due to a historical coincidence, ain't functions as the negative form of both present tense BE and present tense HAVE in non-standard English today."

(Lieselotte Anderwald, Negation in Non-Standard British English: Gaps, Regularizations, and Asymmetries. Routledge, 2002)

"Boy, have you lost your mind? Cause I'll help you find it. What you looking for, ain't nobody gonna help you out there."

(Leslie David Baker as Stanley in "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." The Office, 2006)

The Position of Not

"The preferred position for the negator not is after the first word of the auxiliary or after a copula, in a main clause. Under various circumstances, a negator that should properly be placed elsewhere is attracted into this position.

"Firstly, note that what is here called sentential negation can apply either to a main clause, as in (79), or to a complement clause, as in (80).

(79) I didn't say [that he lied] (I said nothing)

(80) I said [that he didn't lie] (I said that he told the truth)

Here the difference in meaning is significant, and the negator n't is likely to be maintained in its proper place. But consider:

(81) I don't think [that he came] (I don't know what he did)

(82) I think [that he didn't come] (I think that he stayed away)

The sentiment expressed in (81) is not likely to be often expressed, whereas that in (82) is much used. As Jespersen (1909--49, pt. V: 444) mentions, people often say I don't think that he came when they actually mean (82), that he stayed away. This can be accounted for by attraction of n't from the complement clause into the preferred position, after the first word of the auxiliary in the main clause."

(Robert M. W. Dixon, A Semantic Approach to English Grammar. Oxford Univ. Press, 2005)

Also Known As: negative construction, standard negation

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