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CLAUSE NEGATION

435

Negative declaratives

435a

Negative declarative clauses are formed by using not after a modal or auxiliary

verb, or after the copular verb be:

Native speakers 

may not be aware of the history of their language.

George 

has not been here recently.

Julia 

was not happy about travelling alone at night.

Can

+ not is normally written as one word, cannot.

In informal contexts, the contracted form n’t can be attached to modal and

auxiliary verbs and copular verb be, written without a space. Am and may are not

used with contracted n’t:

You 

mustn’t shout.

We 

hadn’t met before.

My gloves 

aren’t warm enough for this weather.

I

’m not sure. 

(I amn’t sure)

She 

may not have arrived yet.

(She mayn’t have arrived yet.)

Exceptions which require a special spelling and pronunciation are: can’t (cannot),

shan’t

(shall not) and won’t (will not).

Û

also 380e Contracted forms of modal verbs for further examples of negative

contractions with modal verbs and 233b Negative forms and auxiliary verbs

for negative contractions with auxiliary verbs and copular verb be

If there is no modal or auxiliary verb or copular verb be, auxiliary do is used with

not

to form the negative. The contracted forms don’t (for do not), doesn’t (for does

not

) and didn’t (for did not) are used in informal contexts:

I 

do not believe a word he says.

It 

did not occur to her that she was in any danger.

They go into town during the week but they 

don’t usually bother at weekends.

His brother 

doesn’t like fish.

We 

didn’t see the notice until yesterday.

With the verb be (both as a lexical verb and as an auxiliary), there is a choice of

contracted negative form in the present tense between forms with isn’t/aren’t and

forms with ’s not/’re not. In informal spoken contexts, when the subject is a

730 | Negation

Cambridge Grammar of English

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pronoun, the preference is overwhelmingly for the forms with ’s not/’re not. When

the subject is a lexical noun phrase, the choice is more open, but with a strong

preference for the isn’t/aren’t forms:

She

’s not here today.

(pronoun subject + ’s not/’re not: most frequent preferred form)

They 

aren’t going to change the format of these big meetings.

(pronoun subject + isn’t/aren’t: far less frequent)

The plans 

aren’t settled yet, he was saying.

(lexical noun phrase + isn’t/aren’t: preferred form)

The handle

’s not very good, it’s loose.

(lexical noun phrase + ’s not/’re not: less frequent)