REVISE THE BASICS: How to form negative verb forms in English

Negative verb forms are made by putting not after an auxiliary verb. If there are two auxiliary verbs, not goes after the first.

 She has not been invited.  I have not forgotten that. She has not come.  They are not interested.  

She cannot sing. (Note that ‘cannot’ as one word is more common than ‘can not’; both forms are acceptable.)

 If there is no other auxiliary verb, we make negatives by putting do not (contracted form: don’t) before the verb.

 I do not like cricket. (NOT I like not cricket.) She does not like him.  I did not want to go.

 Note that do not is followed by the infinitive without to.  I did not go. (NOT I did not to go.)

In spoken English we often reduce not to n’t:

They don’t work very hard. They aren’t working hard.  They won’t be working hard. They hadn’t been working hard

 Do is not used with negative infinitives or –ing forms:

Remind me not to go there again. (NOT Remind me do not to go there again.)  I’m so sorry for not having called you back.

 

Negative imperatives are made with do not / don’t + infinitive without to. 

Do not make a noise. OR Don’t make a noise. (NOT Make not a noise.)  Don’t pluck flowers.  Don’t walk on the grass.

Do is not normally used with be. However, do can be used to make the negative imperative form of be.                Don’t be silly.

 Not and No

We use not to make a word or expression or clause negative.

Not surprisingly, we missed the train (NOT No surprisingly….). I can see you tomorrow, but not on Thursday.   I have not received his answer.

 We use no with a noun or –ing form to mean ‘not any’ or ‘not a/an’. It’s more emphatic.

Sorry, I’ve got no time. (I don’t have any time for you/for that). No teachers went on strike. (There weren’t any teachers on strike). I’ve got no Thursdays free this term. (… not any Thursdays….). I telephoned but there was no answer. (…. not an answer)

 At the beginning of a sentence, no is almost always used.

No cigarette is completely harmless. No tourists ever come to our village.

 

Double Trouble…….never use double negation

In standard English, we do not use not or do with other negative words like never, hardly, nothing, etc. (But this is common in some English dialects)

 He never works (NOT He does never work OR He doesn’t never work).      It hardly matters (NOT I doesn’t hardly matters). He said nothing (NOT He didn’t say nothing).  I’ve got no money (NOT I haven’t got no money)