Negation: What is Negation?

Negation is a contradiction or denial of something.

Negative form is a process that turns a positive statement into its negative form.

For example:

He is a good boy. (positive form)
He is not a good boy. (negative form)

English verbs are negated by placing the word not after the first auxiliary verb or modal (can, must, will, have, be, etc).

For example:

You must clean the table today. (positive form)
You must not clean the table today. (negative form)

* REMEMBER

When we do not have auxiliary verb in the sentence, do not, does not or did not are introduced to form its negative form.

For example:

He likes swimming. (positive form)
He does not like swimming. (negative form)

More examples:

Positive form	Negative form
I am from Sarawak.	I am not from Sarawak.
She likes listening to rock music.	She does not like listening to rock music.
I have read this magazine.	I have not read this magazine.
You should sleep late.	You should not sleep late.
I can help you with your homework.	I cannot help you with your homework.

Other common words that show negation include:

nobody
never
nothing
none
no one
nowhere

Some of the negations come in the form of affixes. Some examples are given below :

Affixes	Base words	Negation	Meaning
Dis-	appear	Disappear	Not appear
In-	correct	Incorrect	Not correct
Il-	legal	Illegal	Not legal
Im-	possible	Impossible	Not possible
Ir	regular	Irregular	Not regular
Un-	happy	Unhappy	Not happy
-less	care	Careless	Not taking care
-free	fat	Fat-free	Contain no fat

CONTRACTED FORMS
Negative forms can be contracted.

Long negative forms	Short negative forms
do not	don't
does not	doesn't
did not	didn't
am not	*'m not (not amn't)**
is not	isn't
are not	aren't
was not	wasn't
were not	weren't
has not	hasn't
have not	haven't
had not	hadn't
should not	shouldn't
would not	wouldn't
will not	won't
must not	mustn't
cannot	can't