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Grammar Tutorial
A negative word is one that means no or not. Below in the table are negative words or -negatives used in English that make a sentence negative.
Negatives:
| hardly | no body | nothing |
| neither | none | nowhere |
| never | no one | n't contractions |
| no | not | scarcely |
Never use more than one negative in a sentence.
Incorrect: I do not want nothing.
Correct: I do not want anything.
Correct: I want nothing.
Look for words like don't, doesn't, didn't, isn't, aren't, won't, wasn't, weren't, wouldn't, can't, couldn't. These words are negatives. The n't stands for not. Do not use them in a sentence with another negative.
Incorrect: She can't go nowhere.
Correct: She can't go anywhere.
Correct: She can go nowhere.
A common mistake is to forget that hardly and scarcely are negatives.
Incorrect: Pat can't hardly see well enough to drive.
Correct: Pat can't see well enough to drive.
Correct: Pat can hardly see well enough to drive.
contraction: noun. A state of becoming smaller due to shrinkage. In grammar, a contraction is a shortened form of a word or group of words, with the missing letters usually marked by an apostrophe. Here are some Helping (auxiliary) verb participles in contraction forms:
words like don't, doesn't, didn't, isn't, aren't, won't, wasn't, weren't, wouldn't, can't, couldn't
helping or auxiliary verb participles:
do, do not; does, does not; did, did not; is, is not; are, are not; will, will not; were, were not; would, would not, can, cannot; could, could not; have, have not; has, has not; may, may not; might; might not
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