4.43 Forming negative statements

When you want to say that something is not true, is not happening, or is not the case, you normally use a negative statement. Negative statements contain words like 'not', 'never', or 'nowhere'. These are called negative words.

Here is the list of negative words in English:

• neither, never, no, nobody, none, no one, nor, not, nothing, nowhere

Negative words indicate the opposite of something or an absence of something.

4.44

There are some other words such as 'unhappy' or 'meaningless' which give a negative meaning to a statement because they contain a negative affix such as 'un-' or '-less'. These words are explained in paragraphs 4.76 to 4.82.

Another group of words such as 'scarcely' and 'seldom' can be used to make a statement almost negative. These words are called broad negatives. They are explained in paragraphs 4.83 to 4.90.

4.45

If a statement about the existence of something has a negative word in it, you use 'any' (not 'no') as a determiner in front of the following noun group. You can also use a word beginning with 'any-' such as 'anyone' or 'anywhere'.

• We hadn't any money.
• He writes poetry and never shows it to anyone.
• It is impossible to park the car anywhere.

For another use of 'any' see paragraph 2.168.