Negation: Definition, Rules & Examples

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Negation, as maintained by the likes of Merriam Webster refers to

“the action or logical operation of negating or making negative”.

In simpler terms, negation defines the polar opposition of affirmative, denies the existence or vaguely – a refutation. This is also known as “Not”. Classical logic resembles negation with truth function which takes truth to falsity and is perfectly capable of running the opposite operation. It denies the truth of a sentence. It’s just the conversion of the affirmative sentence which converts the simple affirmative sentence into negative.

Example

I like to sing = I do not like to sing.

More examples of negation

Rules of Negation:

By changing the auxiliary verb of the sentence into negative, we can apply Negation in a sentence.

1. Negation in tense

1.	Present Indefinite Tense	Do = do not/ don’t, does = does not/doesn’t.
2.	Present Continuous Tense	Am = am not, is = is not/isn’t, are = are not, aren’t.
3.	Present Perfect Tense	Have = have not/haven’t, has = has not/hasn’t
4.	Present Perfect Continuous tense	Has been = has not been, have been = have not been
5.	Past Indefinite tense	Did = did not/didn’t
6.	Past Continuous tense	Was = was not/wasn’t, were = were not/ weren’t
7.	Past Perfect Tense	Had = had not/hadn’t
8.	Past Perfect Continuous Tense	Had been = had not been/hadn’t been
9.	Future Indefinite Tense	Shall = shall not, will = will not/won’t
10.	Future Continuous tense	Shall be = shall not be, will be = will not/won’t
11.	Future Perfect Tense	Shall have = shall not have, will have = will not have/won’t have
12.	Future Perfect Continuous Tense	Shall have been = shall not have been, will have been = will not have been/won’t have been

Examples:

He drives the car = He does not drive the car
Alex ate rice = Alex did not eat rice

2. Negation in Modal-auxiliary

Modal	Modal in negative	Modal	Modal in negative
Can	Can not/ can’t	Shall	Shall not
Could	Could not/ couldn’t	Should	Should not/shouldn’t
May	May not	Will	Will not/won’t
Might	Might not/mightn’t	would	Would not/wouldn’t
Must	Must not/mustn’t	Ought to	Ought not to
Need	Need not/needn’t

Examples:

Edward can swim= Edward cannot swim
We must go there= We must not go there

3. Negation in Words

Some words such as ever, anybody, anyone, anything, anywhere, instead of never, nobody, no one, nothing, nowhere, etc. represent the Negation.

Examples:

I do not think he can ever reach within time.

More Examples

Examples of Negation Adding Suffixes
Examples of Negation Using Negative Adjectives & Adverbs
Examples of Negation Using Negative Words

Double Negative

Double negative on the other hand, simply defines the existence of two forms of negation in the same sentence. Please, notice that a double negative can often result in an affirmation in the English language (e.g., He hardly stops for small-talks). The rhetorical term for such a phenomenon is ‘litotes’.

Example:

I can not find him nowhere.

Uses of Double Negative

Double Negative can be used in two ways. They are:

1. Using negative words

such as never, nobody, anyone, nothing, nowhere, etc

Example:

He cannot go nowhere without informing me

2. Using prefix

Such as ir, un, non, pre, anti, il, im, etc.

Example:

John is not uncontrollable by his family member though he is a special child.

More examples of negation of using prefix

In modern English, Double Negatives are highly avoidable as it is grammatically wrong. We know we cannot use more than one negative word in a statement. It usually used in informal conversation or speech and in songs’ lyrics as well. To form a correct sentence, we must avoid using a double negative in a single sentence formally.

Published By LearnGrammar.Net