If all parts of the neither/nor construction are singular, treat the entire subject as singular. There are also some important rules about subject-verb agreement when using neither/nor as the subject of a sentence. Neither Sleepy nor Happy nor Grumpy nor Bashful nor Sneezy nor Dopey nor Doc knew how to wake up Snow White. Simply add nor before each new part in the sequence ( neither is used only once at the beginning). Moreover, you can use neither/nor with any number of parts. Hansel neither felt suspicious of the witch nor thought she lied. However, you must always use parallelism with neither/nor, which means if you use neither with a noun, then nor must also be used with a noun, and so on. You can use neither/nor to connect nouns, verbs, clauses, adverbs, adjectives, and phrases. When using neither/nor, you do not need the word not because the pair is already negative. Neither Hansel nor his sister Gretel was good with directions. Hansel was not good with directions, and his sister Gretel was also not good with directions.Īdding neither/nor can shorten it to this: Using neither/nor can make communication more efficient. It’s the negative version of the pair either/or and is used the same way. The pair neither/nor acts as a negative correlative conjunction to connect two or more parts in a series. Negative pronouns don’t have any particular rules about how to use them-except to avoid double negatives, which we explain below. If you place not in front of an adjective that’s already in front of a noun, it sounds weird. Typically, when using not with adjectives, we use the verb be and place not before the predicate adjective. Using not with an adjective is much simpler. In this case, do and not come before the subject, and the bare infinitive of the main verb comes after. With questions, the subject and the verb are switched. If you ever see -n’t at the end of a word, it means not. In spoken English especially, contractions are quite common. This includes sentences that use do as an action verb.īefore we continue, remember that the word not is commonly used in contractions. In this construction, only do is conjugated, and the main verb uses the bare infinitive form (without to ). + not + įor all other verbs, you must use the auxiliary verb do. Don’t forget that, with modal verbs, the main verb uses the bare infinitive form (without to ). If the sentence uses a modal verb, like should, must, or can, place not after the modal verb and before the main verb. The action verb have uses do, just like the other action verbs, explained below. He has not been practicing enough for the championship.īe careful not to confuse the auxiliary verb have with the action verb have. If the sentence uses the auxiliary verb have, as with all of the perfect tenses, place not directly after the conjugated form of have and before the main verb participle. She was not ready for life after college. Usually, this means placing not after be. If the verb of the sentence is be, you put not in front of the predicate noun or predicate adjective (explained in our guide to linking verbs ). Negative pronouns like nothing or no one are already negated and don’t need any additional negatives. Negative adverbs negate verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, but to negate a noun you need a determiner like no or neither. Remember to use the right type of negative to modify the word you want. So if you want to negate the verb like, you put the negative adverb not or never in front of it. In general, a negative word comes before the word it negates. The main difference is the word not (and its necessary partner do ), which reverses the entire meaning. These two sentences have completely opposite meanings, even though most of the words are the same. The most common example is the negative adverb not, used with auxiliary verbs like do or be to negate the original meaning of a sentence. In grammar, negation is when certain words or entire sentences are nullified or shown to be untrue by adding a special type of word called a negative. But let’s start with the question: What is negation? What is negation in grammar? We’ll also cover double negatives and explain how to avoid them with a few double negative examples. The meaning is negated twice, which technically returns the statement to its original positive form-and in the process, creates confusion about the intended meaning.īelow, we discuss negative words and how to use them. They usually show an absence, a contradiction, or a denial.ĭouble negatives are a common grammar mistake in which the two negative words cancel each other out. Negatives like not or never are words that change the meaning of a word or sentence to show it’s untrue or not happening.
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