negative particle

In English grammar, the word not (or its reduced form, -nt) used to indicate negation, denial, refusal, or prohibition.

See also:

• Affirmative Sentence
• Particle
• Polarity
• Sentence Negation

Examples and Observations:

• "Vampire is not a career choice."
  (Bart Simpson in The Simpsons, 2001)



• "The class hamster isn't just sleeping."
  (Bart Simpson in The Simpsons)



• "I am not young enough to know everything."
  (Oscar Wilde)



• "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
  (Mahatma Gandhi)



• "It's a simple question of weight ratios. A five-ounce bird could not carry a one-pound coconut."
  (Soldier addressing King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975)



• "Things are only impossible until they're not."
  (Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation)



• "The negative adverb not is often positioned between words in a verb phrase but is not a part of the verb phrase. It is an independent adverb whose function is to switch the meaning of the verb to its exact opposite:

  Brian will not tell me where we are going.
  I have not given my approval to the project.
  Clarisse was not the culprit.

  In the first example, the adverb not modifies the verb phrase 'will tell.' Because of not, Brian refuses to reveal their destination. In the second example, not modifies the verb phrase 'have given,' and its presence indicates that I have yet to offer any approval. In the final example, not modifies the verb 'was.' Clarisse's innocence hangs on the presence of the adverb."
  (Michael Strumpf and Auriel Douglas, The Grammar Bible. Owl, 2004)



• "The normal form of negation in English is to add not (or its contracted form -nt) after the operator (that is, after the first auxiliary verb or the finite verb be):

  positive: I am feeling tired.
  negative: I am not feeling tired.
  
  positive: You could help her.
  negative: You couldn't help her.
  
  positive: The letter is here.
  negative: The letter isn't here.

  When the positive sentence has no operator, do is used as a dummy operator to form the negative:

  Sue likes jogging.
  Sue doesn't like jogging.

  The contracted negative forms are used in informal style, especially in speech. They are: isn't, aren't, wasn't, weren't, hasn't, haven't, hadn't, doesn't, don't, didn't, won't, shan't, can't, mustn't, wouldn't, shouldn't, couldn't, mightn't. For some operators there is no negative contraction (for example, may not, am not) and so the full form has to be used. In making a sentence or clause negative, we sometimes have to make other changes. For example, it is common to replace some by any when it follows not. The negative of We saw some rare birds is We didn't see any rare birds."
  (Geoffrey N. Leech, A Glossary of English Grammar. Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2006)