Grammar Focus - Negation

1. Use no as an adjective.

a) I have no equipment for mountain climbing.
b) There are no bottles of juice in the fridge.

2. Use not as an adverb.

► not can be used after auxiliaries and before main verbs.
a) She is not gathering enough berries.
b) You should not walk on the grass.
► If there is no auxiliary, do is used along with not.
a) I do not find this movie very interesting.
b) She does not dig in the garden.

3. Put a negative word before non-finite verbs: to-infinitives, gerunds, and participles.

a) We decided not to study French.
b) I enjoy not waking up early in the morning.
c) In order not to park downtown, he took a bus.

4. Never = not ever

a) He never parks his car on the street.
b) They can never pick enough apples.
► The position of never changes the meaning of the sentence.
a) We decided never to climb Mt. Everest.
b) We never decided to climb Mt. Everest.
c) I enjoy never waking up early in the morning.
d) I never enjoy waking up early in the morning.

5. Redundancy in Negation

► Avoid double negatives.
a) I did not find no treasure. (✘) (no ➔ any)
b) I found no treasure.
► Do not use a negative word along with: hardly, seldom, rarely, scarcely, barely.
a) We could not hardly walk through the crowd. (✘) Omit not
➔ We could hardly walk through the crowd.