Questions tagged [negation]
"Negation" is the process that turns an affirmative statement into its opposite denial.
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not crazy to take this risk
a. I am not crazy to take this risk.
b. I am not a madman to take this risk.
Do these mean
I am taking this risk and it is not crazy of me to do so
or
Only someone crazy would take this risk and I ...
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Negative "not" in the clause
Is there any difference between clauses below?
Wouldn't he help you?
Would he not help you?
I saw the second clause in the PS1 game "Front mission 3". I sometimes think that games are not ...
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Can I say "Would've been that funny hadn't been that sad"
Can I say the next sentence:
Would've been that funny hadn't been that sad.
in the meaning "It would have actually been funny, unless it had been as sad as that" (a situation was both funny ...
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How to respond a 'tag question'
Mike hardly puts up his hand in class, does he? ____He is one of the most active students in our class.
Which one should I put into the blank?'yes'or'no'?
I asked the chatgpt ,it told me when ...
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Where should I put “not” in the sentence 'The person admits to ___ having ___ read the book'?
I have three forms that I can think of for this sentence:
The person admits to not having read the book.
The person admits to having not read the book.
The person admits not to have read the book.
...
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Is 'nowadays' a negator? / does it form a sentence whose polarity is negative?
Came across a passage that used nowadays to counter the previous statement, and was wondering whether it would count as a word that does non-verbal negation
In the past this happened frequently; ...
Amy
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"Is he not the carpenter's son?" v.s. "Is not he the carpenter's son?"
I've heard this from a priest's homily, "Is he not the carpenter's son?"—taken from Mt. 13: 55-56 (King James Version).
I got confused whether the priest read the passage the wrong way—I was ...
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'The exam is very difficult so I don't think ___ can pass it'
The exam is very difficult so I don't think __ can pass it.
A. anybody
B. everybody
C. no one
D. somebody
Semantically, I infer the author wanted to emphasize that no one can pass the exam, because ...
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Difference in meaning between singular and plural in negative statements [closed]
I want to figure out the differences between the following sentences and if they have the same meaning?
What about adding "any" in the middle.
I don't have a question. --- I don't have ...
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Why Negate when asking/suggesting?
I have heard a lot of people saying that it's much better to negate the modals or whatever when asking or suggesting—suggestions that are in question form. But, I just don't get why. I mean, is it ...
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Confirming negatives in English
I know in English if someone asks:
The picture is not correct, right?
I could answer:
No, it is not correct.
Right, it is not correct.
But what if the negative is in the word itself, such as
The ...
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“Can I not read it”?
If a person is asking about permission not to read something, he doesn't want to read it and asks not to read it. Can we use the phrase “Can I not read it”? Is it correct?
Kateryna Artsybasheva
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Using not with both, either, neither: word choice when expressing negation of two options
In a sentence responding negatively to multiple statements or questions,
which of the following ways sounds best and has the least grammatical error?
He didn’t do both.
He didn’t do either.
He didn’t ...
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"I didn’t agree with some of the things he said." — Why is it correct to use "some" after the negation?
an example from the textbook "the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language", page 359:
(1) I didn’t agree with some of the things he said.
As far as I know, "some" can't be used ...
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If "I did Exercise 1 but not 2" is correct, then why is "The exercise I did was 1 but not 2" not correct?
a conclusion from one of threads on forum.wordreference.com:
(1a) I did Exercise 1, not 2. — correct
(1b) I did Exercise 1 but not 2. — correct
(2a) The exercise I did was 1, not 2. — correct
(2b) ...
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