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1.1.1: Negative Forms of "To Be"

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    272064
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    Negative Statements with the BE Verb

    To make sentences negative, we add the negative not after the BE verb. Do not use no. No does not usually appear in the middle of a sentence.

    Subject BE + not Nouns, Adjectives, and Prepositional Phrases
    I am not in class.
    He
    She
    It
    is not hungry.
    You
    We
    They
    are not at school.
    Activity 1.11: Writing

    Directions: Change the affirmative sentences to negative sentences. Add not between the BE verb and the adjective, noun, or prepositional phrase. Use full forms.

    1. Tigers are blue and orange.
    2. Chicago is a country.
    3. The park is downtown.
    4. Dogs are quiet.
    5. Cats are loud.
    6. She is a nurse.
    7. He is tall.
    8. They are from China.

    Negative Contractions with the BE Verb

    There are two ways to make negative contractions with the BE verb.

    1. contract the subject and verb (he is not = he’s not), or
    2. contract the verb and the negative (he is not = he isn’t).
    Activity 1.12: Writing

    Directions: Change the full forms to contractions.

    Example

    Tigers are not blue and orange. → Tigers aren’t blue and orange.

    1. Ana and Pedro are not from France.
    2. Ana and Pedro are not tall.
    3. Our apartment is not on the third floor.
    4. Our mom is not a terrible cook.
    5. We are not thin.
    6. We are not students at Houston Community College.
    7. There is not a patio outside our front door.
    8. Ana is not 40 years old.

    Explorations 1: Grammar for the Experienced Beginner Copyright © by Susan; Jen; and Kit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License,


    1.1.1: Negative Forms of "To Be" is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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