Negation

Negation: Saying No

To negate is to say the opposite of something positive.

Consider the following two sentences:

In this picture, the baby is saying the negated form of what the man is saying. He (She?) is saying the opposite of what the man is saying:

I don't know how to drive a car.

And this is a shorter form of:

I do not know how to drive a car.

I think it's easy to understand that the word "not" gives us our negation. But where did that "do" come from?

"do" is an "auxilliary" (helper) for English Negation

First, it's important to note that what is negated is a verb. Because verbs are action words, they are words that discribe what someone (or something) is doing. This might help you understand why "do" is used as an auxilliary for negation.

However,...

"do" is only used sometimes, not every time.

There are 12 basic tenses and aspects in English.

For example, we can conjugate the verb "to sing" over these twelve tenses and aspects:

Tense/Aspect		Positive	Negated
Present	Simple	I sing	I do not sing (I don't sing)
	Perfect	I have sung	I have not sung (I haven't sung)
	Progressive	I am singing	I am not singing (I'm not singing)
	Perfect Progressive	I have been singing	I have not been singing (I haven't been singing)
Past	Simple	I sang	I did not sing (I didn't sing)
	Perfect	I had sung	I had not sung (I hadn't sung)
	Progressive	I was singing	I was not singing (I wasn't singing)
	Perfect Progressive	I had been singing	I had not been singing (I hadn't been singing)
Future	Simple	I will sing	I will not sing (I won't sing)
	Perfect	I will have sung	I will not have sung (I won't have sung)
	Progressive	I will be singing	I will not be singing (I won't be singing)
	Perfect Progressive	I will have been singing	I will not have been singing (I won't have been singing)

Note there are two Tense/Aspects where the auxilliary "do" is required:

The Simple Present, and
the Simple Past.

And here's what makes those two Tense/Aspects special: They're both simple tense/aspects, and all the rest are compound tense/aspects.

Simple	means	one word	(For example,	sing	).
				(one word)
Compound	means	more than one word	(For example,	will sing	).
				(two words)

So, in the following picture, the man is using a simple tense/aspect of "to know" (the Simple Present; one word "know"), and the baby is using a compound tense aspect of "to know" (the Simple Future; two words "will know"):

Building a Negation: Example ONE, Past Perfect

We will show you the step-by-step process that converts a statement using a Past Perfect form of "to know" into its negated form.

To see this slideshow, move your mouse over each of the numbers on the "filmstrip" to see the steps by which a sentence involving the Past Perfect of "to know" gets negated:

Building a Negation: Example TWO, Simple Present

Now let's convert a statement using a Simple Present form of "to know" into its negated counterpart:

Building a Negation: Example THREE, Simple Past

Negating the Simple Past is sort of like the Simple Present, except there's an interesting little surprise in the middle!

Building a Negation: Example FOUR, 3rd-Person, Singular, Simple Present

There's another complex negation which has little to do with Tense or Aspect, and that's negating the 3rd-Person, Singular, Simple Present.

It is rather like negating the Simple Past. As with the Simple Past, negating the 3rd-Person, Singular, Simple Present also requires the transfer of information from the verb to the auxiliary ("does"), as you will also see in Step 3 of the following slide show: