"to not" or "not to"

[piginthesky]

Hello everyone!
Do we say
"It's bad to not eat your breakfast."
or
"It's bad not to eat your breakfast." ?
Could anyone help me out here?
Thanks in advance!

[ladybird987]

It's bad not to eat your breakfast.

If it's infinitive (not a personal form) you put "not" before "to".

[piginthesky]

It's bad not to eat your breakfast.

If it's infinitive (not a personal form) you put "not" before "to".

Hi, Ladybird987, Thank you for your reply, but I still don't quite understand this. Could you please be very kind to give me more examples?
Thank you very much.

[ladybird987]

A very popular one: "to be or not to be"
infinitive: to be
personal forms:
I am
You are
He, she, it is

We are
You are
They are

so, when you deal with an infinitive (e.g. to be)and a negation (not), you put "not" before it
not to be

I hope it will help :)

[tzfujimino]

Hello everyone!
Do we say
"It's bad to not eat your breakfast."
or
"It's bad not to eat your breakfast." ?
Could anyone help me out here?
Thanks in advance!

Hi, everyone!

Well...I would say...

"It's bad not to eat your breakfast." is correct.

However...I've often heard native speakers say '....to not...' instead of '....not to...'

I'm not a native speaker of English, so please forgive me if I'm wrong.

[ladybird987]

I think native speakers make more mistakes than people who learn the language - and it refers not only to English. Of course, teachers - first of all academic - and hobbysts pay attention to what they say, try to be correct and therefore they speak correctly, but I'm afraid it's minority.

[IvanV]

I think native speakers make more mistakes than people who learn the language - and it refers not only to English. Of course, teachers - first of all academic - and hobbysts pay attention to what they say, try to be correct and therefore they speak correctly, but I'm afraid it's minority.

Well, mistakes are there to be made, but I wouldn't go that far to say that native speakers make more mistakes than people who learn the language. There's a great difference between mistakes made by native speakers of a language, and those of non-natives, though.

[Raymott]

Well, mistakes are there to be made, but I wouldn't go that far to say that native speakers make more mistakes than people who learn the language. There's a great difference between mistakes made by native speakers of a language, and those of non-natives, though.

"to not <verb>" is not always wrong; often it's a stylistic variant.
"To not remember the names of your children is terrible!"
"I love holidays - it's a chance to go to the beach, to fish, to not have to worry about housework."
Perhaps learners should stay clear of it though.