Learn how to make a sentence negative

It is very easy to make a sentence negative. Just read the following and learn 3 simple formulas. Here we go...

If your sentence has a 'be' verb form, say 'am', 'are', 'is', 'was' or 'were' (There are eight forms of 'BE': be, am, are, is, was, were, been and being), then you need to add only a 'not' to make the sentence negative.

e.g. Positive Sentence: He is a football player. 
Make it negative as 'He is not a football player.' Or, 'He isn't a football player.'  

We make negative sentences by adding not to Auxiliary Verbs also. 

e.g. Positive Sentence: He can play the guitar. 
Make it negative as 'He cannot play the guitar.' Or, 'He can't play the guitar.'  

But in case of other verbs we can't add 'not' directly with the verb to make it negative. 


e.g. Positive Sentence: I play the guitar. 
I can't make it negative by adding not after the verb 'play'. I can't write 'I play not the guitar.' (Wrong)
Make it negative as 'I do not play the guitar.' Or, 'I don't play the guitar.'

Most of the verbs have 5 forms.

Take the verb 'Do'. It has five forms.

Do-V1               Did-V2            Done-V3              Doing-V4             Does-V5

Two more verbs:

Go-V1               Went-V2         Gone-V3              Going-V4             Goes-V5
Write-V1          Wrote-V2        Written-V3          Writing-V4           Writes-V5 

To make a sentence negative we mostly need 'do', 'did' and 'does' to help us.

 Learn the following 3 formulas to make your sentence negative:

V1-don't V1 (or, do not V1)

V2-didn't V1 (or, did not V1)

V5-doesn't V1 (or, does not V1)

e.g. We write. (V1) ------------------------- We don't write. (don't V1)
You wrote. (V2)------------------------------You didn't write. (didn't V1)
He writes. (V5)------------------------------He doesn't write. (doesn't V1)



In case of Helping or Auxiliary Verbs, just add 'not' to the verb as I have shown you in the first few examples.

Let me know, if you find the above useful. Write to me to ritwik.blog@gmail.com