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  1. #11
    MrPedantic is offline Moderator
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    Default Re: negating a verb directly?

    Hello Dihen

    In fact, you can use these for emphasis:

    "You only can hope."
    "I never can do that!"
    "It always is possible!"
    "He often has visited his friends!"
    "I hardly can see anything!"
    "You never will know" or "You never will know!"

    For instance:

    "MrsQ, why won't you go out with me?"
    "MrP, why do you keep asking me the same question? For fifteen years now I've been telling you: I won't go out with you, and that's final. Isn't that enough?"
    "It's just that I'd like to know why..."
    "It's no good, MrP. I'm not going to tell you."
    "Is it my halitosis? Or the fact that I have six fingers? Or that little twitch of mine?"
    "MrP, can we change the subject?"
    "I'd really like to know..."
    "Listen, MrP, if you don't know by now, you never will know, okay?"
    "Okay, okay...So, we just have to stay in again – is that it?"
    "That's it. Now, quit talking and close the curtains. My husband will be home soon."
    "Okay, MrsQ, okay..."

    MrP

  2. #12
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    Default sir

    my dear sir don't andrestend

  3. #13
    dihen is offline Member
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    Threadstarter / Original Poster

    Default Re: negating a verb directly?

    Quote Originally Posted by JaneP View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by dihen View Post
    I'll ask a question: is there actually an English dialect somewhere that negates verbs directly like the examples I gave ("not can", "not will", "not likes", "not knew" and so on), or are they only mistakes that foreigners may make?
    There is no dialect that does this. it is a fundamental rule of English. Main verbs can not be negated - the presence of an auxilliary or modal is required. Or the insertion of the dummy operator 'do' - 'I do not eat fish'. This is just how English works and it would sound absurd to a native speaker to negate a main verb or to place the negative particle before the verb.
    Depends on if you consider pidgins or "heavily influenced by the local language" dialects or not, although pidgins that place the negation particle before the verb ("not" or "not"), are likely to not have subject-verb agreement. And I sometimes determine the subject-verb agreement by the position right after the subject, instead of by the category of the negation particle "not".
    `
    example:
    He not helps anyone. (I don't accept this sentence,)
    He often not helps anyone. (but I may accept this one.)
    Last edited by dihen; 11-Aug-2006 at 04:52.

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