Negative action

We've looked at a lot of snippets where an action happens, but so far we haven't touched on verb groups where the action doesn't happen.

For instance:

Ghouls do not build.

The Graveyard Book(2010)

Let's check what the positive version (where the action does happen) of this snippet looks like.

Ghouls build.

Okay, so the first and main thing to notice here is that negative action is created with the word not and that not is part of the verb group.

If that's all you take from this page, then we'll consider it a success.

But if you want to dig a little deeper—and why wouldn't you? you're doing great—we can explore exactly where in the verb group the word 'not' likes to position itself.

Try this

Say a few sentences to yourself that have long verb groups that include the word 'not', then move it around in the verb group and listen to how it sounds.

For example:

"We were not supposed to go."
"We were supposed to not go."
"We were supposed to go not."
"Not we were supposed to go."

If you just do this in your head, you'll notice that the negative seems to work best when it comes somewhere between the first helper verb and the main verb.

What if the main verb is on its own?

If the main verb is on its own, we have to at the very least add the tense helper do or did in front of 'not'. For example:

"We eat."
"We do not eat."
"We ate."
"We did not eat."

Here's another example. This time we'll look at the positive version first, and then insert 'not' to make it negative.

"We made roast beef," Violet said.

"We didn't make roast beef," Violet said.

The Bad Beginning

Here's another pair:

She had been listening to that last speech of Count Olaf's.

She hadn't been listening to that last speech of Count Olaf's.

The Bad Beginning

Notice how there was already a tense helper, so we didn't need to add do/did.

Now have a look at this next pair:

"If the River dies, we can stay here. We will be able to live."

"If the River dies, we cannot stay here. We won't be able to live."

The River and the Book(2015)

Just like if the verb group already has a tense helper, if there's a modal verb in the group, the not can just be added after the modal verb.

Let's watch how the word not likes to jump around inside a verb group as we change it.

Here's a verb group with a modal verb and some tense helpers:

We could have been staying here.

If we change this to a negative statement, where does not go?

We could not have been staying here.

Now let's remove the modal verb could and see where not goes:

We have not been staying here.

And if we change the tense:

We are not staying here.

And if we change the tense again:

We do not stay here.

We get our do tense helper creeping in.

But some rules are made to be broken. Breaking this one is great for adding a little bit of judgy sarcasm!

We could have not been staying here...

Have another look at the position of the negative in the snippets above, and then take a look at this next one. What's different?

He's not back. But I'm not worried.

That Eye, the Sky(1986)

So it's not quite true that not always comes before the main verb. The exception to the rule is when the main verb is based on to be, like in the snippet above.

However, once we add a tense helper or modal verb, you'll see the negative jump in front of the verb again:

He would not be back. But I had not been worried.

Write a sentence using 'not'. Try messing around with tense (past/present/future, ongoing/completed) and see what you come up with.

Write another one and this time try messing around with modality (using 'can', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'shall', 'should', 'will', 'would', or 'must').

Verb groups