4.57 other uses of 'not'

You can also use 'not' with almost any word or word group in a clause. For example, you can use it with noun groups, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, and quantifiers. You usually do this in order to be more forceful, careful, polite, hesitant, and so on. The following paragraphs 4.58 and 4.59 describe some of these uses.

4.58

'Very' is often used after 'not' to soften the negative meaning of a clause. You can put 'very' in front of an adjective complement, in front of a complement that contains an adjective, or in front of an adverb. This sounds more polite or hesitant than using 'not' without 'very'.

• His attitude is not very logical.
• It's not very strong tea, it won't stain.
• He was'nt a very good actor.
• She shook her head, but not very convincingly.

You can use 'not' with 'absolutely', 'altogether', 'entirely', or 'necessarily' in a similar way. You do this in order to sound more polite or less critical.

• She wasn't absolutely convinced of her usefulness.
• I was not altogether sure.
• They are not entirely reliable.
• Science is not necessarily hostile to human values.

You can use 'not' in front of a complement which has a negative meaning to indicate that the thing you are describing has in fact some good qualities, although you do not want to make them sound better than they really are. This structure is often used with words which have a negative affix such as 'un-' or '-less'.

• Well, it certainly is not a hindrance.
• It's not a bad start.
• It's a small point, but not an unimportant one.
• America is very well developed, but not limitless.

Words with negative affixes are discussed in paragraphs 4.76 to 4.82.