Questions tagged [negation]
Negation is the process that turns an affirmative statement (e.g. "I am American") into its opposite denial (e.g. "I am not American").
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Placement of “anymore” with respect to other complements, as in "not possible anymore to …"
I often see sentences like this from non-native speakers:
?It is not possible anymore to cross the border without a passport.
To me, this sounds wrong, and I would write this instead:
It is no ...
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Any proposition...cannot be... vs. No proposition...can be
In another post, Lord Esher was quoted as saying this sentence:
Any proposition the result of which would be to show that the common law of England is wholly unreasonable and unjust cannot be part of ...
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"Unless instructed to do so" vs "Unless instructed otherwise" preferred usage
I want to give a short but clear instruction like:
1. Please do NOT perform X unless instructed to do so.
2. Please do NOT perform X unless instructed otherwise.
Which one would be a better option ...
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How can I determine the difference between negating a clause and negating the main verb?
I have problems distinguishing the negation of a verb that is applied to a clause, and a verb that is applied to a negation of a clause. The following is an example that I do understand:
I do not ...
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Neither A nor B
As a native speaker, the basic usage of "neither" and "nor" are perfectly clear to me. However, natives may suffer from colloquial usage sounding more normal than formal grammar. I definitely have ...
user181592
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Negatives and Interrogatives with and without subject-verb inversion: "Didn't you have a lecture today?" vs "You didn't have a lecture today?"
"Didn't you have a lecture today?" vs "You didn't have a lecture today?"
Regarding the aforementioned clauses, from "experience", I can surmise different, subtle nuances. ...
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Can I show my opinion in negative interrogative?
I believe
It is not safe to let strangers in.
How do I ask people and find out if they have the same opinion as me?
Is it safe to let strangers in?: It feels like to me that I have no opinion.
Isn't ...
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Term for this type of negation: "Not for X I don't"
You got any more pot?
Not for $9 an hour I don't.
What is this type of negation called? These are the lines from a movie script. I've come across this sentence structure quite a few times but I know ...
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Preposition change like "depend on" -> "independent of"
I'd like to know if, in English, there are more cases when the preposition changes for the negation (or eventually with some other change of gramatical context), the same or similar to "on" -...
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The meaning of Let us not or Do not let us
As far as I know, the negatives of Let us are Let us not and Do not let us. And Let us has two different meaning: one is a suggestion and the other is an imperative. Then doesn't Let us not or Do not ...
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Effect of negative statement after the conjuction 'and'
I just read the following statement,
100% Administrator Trust
Administrators have and will never have access to any unencrypted data.
I am sure that author wanted to imply that (1) Administrators ...
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without X and without Y
I want to express absence of 2 things. For example:
It was a pretty day without rain and without snow.
Logically: (not X) and (not Y), which is equivalent to: not (X or Y)
Therefore, I guess the ...
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'I disagree that either of these options is correct'
I thought that I mastered the usage of "either" (and neither)...only to be unsure about the following sentence (which I heard, not that it was me who said it):
I disagree that either of these ...
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Difference among You never change. and You change never. and Never do you change
I think "You never change." is the most usual and basic. But "You change never." is also well used in spoken English. "Never do you change." is almost never seen on books ...
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Usage of Negatives in Everyday Speach: Unnecessary or Incorrect
I frequently have this debate with my fiancée about whether it is as appropriate to use a negative in the following examples as it is to omit it.
I am frequently found making statements using the ...
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Negation of progressive tenses in questions
I want to conjugate the verb "accept" in the progressive form for past, present and future tenses AS A QUESTION IN THE NEGATIVE. But I am confused about which approach is correct:
Scenario: Given the ...
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Asking a question in a negative way
Forgive me for the vague and strange title. I honestly couldn't come up with a better way to ask. As an example to illustrate my question, however, consider the following comic from SBMC (www.sbmc-...
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"Check if you haven't" or "check if you have" left anything behind?
This might be trivial but it didn't sound right to me when I thought about it, so I decided to ask.
An automated message I've heard says "please check if you haven't left anything behind". It ...
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Omit the subject after a conjunction in negative sentence?
I suppose these two sentences are equivalent:
I did A and I did B.
I did A and B.
So in the case of
I didn't do A, but I did B.
Can I use:
I didn't do A but B(past tense).
Or:
I did B but not A....
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Multiple Modifiers
What does not modify in this sentence?
I am not even playing basketball.
Also, does quickly modify played the game or just played in this sentence?
I played the game quickly.
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"Expect": + that-clause vs + to-infinitive
In ‘I expect J will come’, you are simply saying you think
he will, but in ‘I expect J to come’ you will be annoyed or
disappointed if he does not.
Instead of ‘expect something will not’ happen, you ...
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How to interpret the use of adverbs with conjugate clauses?
I wanted to clarify how an adverb (usually preceding) affects the clauses connected by a conjunction.
Consider the dictionary meaning of the word oblique. The New Oxford Dictionary of American ...
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Do Interrogative Negative forms in the simple present tense imply only two situations?
Is it correct to say that, in English, when you use the Present Simple tense in the Interrogative Negative form you are either implying the negative or just confirming the affirmative (depending on ...
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What is it about this statement?
This phrase "came to me" when I awoke from a dream (there's a reason why, based on the dream, but it's not relevant):
Not catching a ball is not a crime.
A rather simple sentence, and easy ...
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Is there a term for an past-tense adjective that implies transformation (e.g., "melted ice")?
Recently, someone objected to my use of the terms "melted ice" and "condensed steam," saying that those materials are no longer ice and steam, respectively. I agreed and said that ...
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"these functions are strictly non-decreasing, whereas the others ARE", or "these functions are strictly non-decreasing, whereas the others DO"?
Should I say
"these functions are strictly non-decreasing, whereas the others ARE.",
- or -
"these functions are strictly non-decreasing, whereas the others DO." ?
Related, but not similar:
...
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Uncommon subjunctive inversion in a negative clause in the pluperfect: "had not millions been swept away"
Voters in 2008 would have seen he didn’t measure up then, had not millions been swept away with emotion and wish-fulfillment. (source)
This line reads odd even jarring to me with a weird inversion ...
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Before the 20th century, how did people express ideas like "X isn't going to happen anytime soon"?
Something I was writing recently included the phrase "They aren't going to disappear anytime soon." I was a bit unsure about whether to write "any time" or "anytime", so I looked that up and found ...
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What does this answer to a negative question mean?
A: So, no party tonight?
B: No, there is a lot of discussion.
Is B saying there is no party?
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"Would you like this or no" vs "Would you like this or not"?
I would like to discern if both of these phrasings are correct and if they possibly even mean different things. One of them bothers me terribly.
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"increased no cost" vs "did not increase the cost"
I think this sentence is correct:
This action increased no cost.
I can say the same as:
This action did not increase the cost.
I prefer the former, because it's shorter. However, could one ...
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What do you call the use of a negative in order to emphasize?
In particular, I was looking at this quote:
Adam (Paradise Lost): ‘nothing lovelier can be found / In woman, than to study household good’
Here's 'nothing' emphasizes 'lovelier'. Is there a term ...
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Nor without neither?
I am correcting a translation for a friend. He wanted to say:
"Don't look for treasure nor earthly pleasure."
This sounds wrong to me. I would say:
"Look not for treasure nor earthly pleasure."
...
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Understanding a negative sentence
“I don’t like anything that’s not expensive”
Can anyone explain what this means? Do they only like expensive things or they don’t?
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Meaning of “lack of impunity”
This passage comes from the book Civil–Military Relationships in Developing Countries by Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi:
Finally, this chapter will also look at the ensuing problems
Indonesian democracy faces ...
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