By Negations, Verbs

Note the definition: Operators are the modals (can, could, will, would, etc.) and forms of be -- and also forms of do or have used as auxiliaries. The negative adverb not can only be carried by an operator, i.e., can only be used when accompanied by an operator. To negate a sentence...

Grammatical justification? What is it? What form would a grammatical justification take? The presence of thousands of instances of it, as on Google? No, I don't think that's what you mean. An analysis of what part of speech each of the words is? No, I don't think that's what you...

Mister Micawber wrote:It just reflects its position as a marginal modal. The negation is as with others of its group:I dare not playI ought not to playI need not playI used not to playYou will note that all of these verbs have various forms of variable respectability. How can "used to" be...

It just reflects its position as a marginal modal. The negation is as with others of its group:I dare not playI ought not to playI need not playI used not to playYou will note that all of these verbs have various forms of variable respectability.

Thank you so much... yeah, I think I read that thread, but I see you don't like "often" at the beginning, and "sometimes" at the end.You wrote a lot in yur post, and I know that stuff, it's not difficultm because that's the "common" position of adverbs, isn't it? It is simple to remember what's...

Hi,this has been asked more than once I guess, but I decided to put it neatly this way:Consider: usually, often, rarely, sometimes.Where is it possible to place them in a sentence? I wrote my choices in blue.I do it. <--- this is an affirmative sentence.At the beginning: often (with or without...

Not far from there stood Edgar Snow the famous American author. Maple, This is "locative inversion"; it is not motivated by negation. Complete negation of the main clause triggers obligatory "fronted negative inversion". (According to the meaning of this sentence there is no complete...

CalifJim wrote:Avoid sentences in which the subject is all inclusive (all, every, each, both) and the verb has a negation. Negate the subject instead, or rephrase to remove the negation.?All the students are not here.None of the students is here.All the students are absent.?Both June and July...

Avoid sentences in which the subject is all inclusive (all, every, each, both) and the verb has a negation. Negate the subject instead, or rephrase to remove the negation. ?All the students are not here. None of the students is here. All the students are absent. ?Both June and July are...

CalifJim wrote:I don't think there really is a "right context" for this sentence. It seems somehow ill-formed. The problem is the ambiguity in the scope of the negation.Tom hasn't been sleeping since 2."Tom has been doing non-sleeping since 2"? i.e., Tom has been (continuously) awake since...