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Forming Negative and Interrogative Phrases
Forming Negative and Interrogative Phrases
There are two ways (two big categories) of forming negative or interrogative sentences:
- First category: we use the auxiliary do in $99.9\%$ of verbs cases, in any other form possible: don’t / doesn’t / did / didn’t.
Examples:
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She likes chocolate.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She doesn’t like chocolate.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Does she like chocolate? - Second category: we use have or be or modal verbs in the remaining percentage, $0.1\%$, or you might call it the exception case.
Examples:
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She has eaten chocolate.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She hasn’t eaten chocolate.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Has she eaten chocolate?
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She is angry.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She isn’t angry.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Is she angry?
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She will eat chocolate.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She will not (won’t) eat chocolate.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Will she eat chocolate?
Important:
To better understand this topic, you need to work per elimination, meaning that you need to learn the exception cases, so that every time one of those exceptions occur in a sentences of yours, you know how to handle it, otherwise you should use do.
| Case | Percentage | Use | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exceptions (verbs) | 0.001% |
be – as main verb – as auxiliary have as auxiliary Modal verbs: – will / would – can / could – shall / should – may / might – must |
use the same – main verb – auxiliary and – modal verbs to form negation and interrogation |
| All verbs | 99.99% | do | use exclusively do to form negation and question |
Examples
Exceptions
- be as main verb:
- be as auxiliary:
- have as auxiliary:
- Modal verbs:
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She is at home.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She isn’t at home.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Is she at home?
Observation: When we use be as the main verb, we reuse it to form both negation and question.
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She is eating bread at home.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She isn’t eating bread at home.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Is she eating bread at home?
Observation: When we use be as auxiliary, we reuse it to form both negation and question.
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She has eaten bread at home.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She hasn’t eaten bread at home.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Has she eaten bread at home?
Observation: When we use have as auxiliary, we reuse it to form both negation and question.
$\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She will eat bread at home.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She will not (won’t) eat bread at home.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Will she eat bread at home?
Observation: When we use a modal verb, we reuse it to form both negation and question.
Modal verbs are:
$\qquad$ $ will \longrightarrow would $
$\qquad$ $ can \longrightarrow could $
$\qquad$ $ shall \longrightarrow should $
$\qquad$ $ may \longrightarrow might $
$\qquad$ $ must $
All verbs
The majority of verbs in English form their negation and interrogation with the auxiliary do.
Examples:
- $\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ She goes home.
- $\qquad$ Affirmative $\qquad\:\:\:\:\:\:\:$ They work hard.
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ She doesn’t go home.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Does she go home?
$\qquad$ Negative: $\qquad\qquad$ They don’t work hard.
$\qquad$ Interrogative: $\qquad\:$ Do they work hard?
N.B.: This is often the case if the sentence concerned does not include:
- neither the verb be as the main verb
- nor the verb be as an auxiliary verb
- nor the verb have as an auxiliary verb
- even less a modal verb.
Exercises
Conditionals - Other Exercises
Zero Conditionals
First Conditionals
Second Conditionals
Third Conditionals
All Conditional Sentences
Mixed Conditional Sentences / Exceptions
Active into Passive
- Choose the correct passive form!
|
Active into passive Choose the correct passive form! There are 10 questions ... never mind using the 'by' agent! On your mark, get set, go! |
Active / Passive
- Active or Passive? make a choice!
- Rewrite the passive sentences into active
- Rewrite the active sentences into passive
|
Active or Passive Are the sentences written in active or passive? There are 10 questions ... On your mark, get set, go! |
Passive Voice (Active / Passive)
- The passive voice is formed with:
- the auxiliary verb to be and
- the past participle to the main verb.
- Passive constructions can be used in most of the tenses.
- the tense is marked/shown by the form of of the auxiliary to be
- the main verb stays the same in all the tenses.
P.S.: A few tenses (in Sage green in the table) aren’t normally used with the passive.
- The passive is frequently used when the person carrying out the action is unknown, unimportant or already clear from the text.
e.g.:
- Shoes were thrown at president Georges W. Bush.
- Chinese is learned in some schools in Germany.
- Shakespeare’s language is still used today.
- The person who does the action can be made clear with the preposition by.
e.g.:
- The beautiful house was built by a talented engineer.
- After the disaster, the city’s reconstruction plan was published by the seating mayor.
- You can use the preposition will to describe what is used to do the action.
e.g.:
- The beautiful house must have been painted with watercolors.
- This artwork must have been made with clay.
| Tense | Active voice | Passive voice |
| Present simple | make | is/are made |
| Present continuous/prog. | is/are making | is/are being made |
| Present perfect | has/have made | has/have been made |
| Present perfect continuous/prog. | has been making | has been being made |
| Past simple | made | was made |
| Past continuous/prog. | was making | was being made |
| Past perfect | had made | had been made |
| Past perfect continuous/prog. | had been making | has been being made |
| Going-to-Future | is/are going to make | is/are going to be made |
| Will-Future | will make | will be made |
| Future continuous/prog. | will be making | will be being made |
| Future perfect | will have made | will have been made |
| Various modal verbs, e.g. can, might, have to, must The same goes for their compounds: (may, could, should, etc. …) |
can make might make has/have to make must make |
can be made might be made has/have to be made must be made |
Practical exercise: Passive Voice (Active / Passive)
1. Active or passive:
2. Change the sentences from active to passive:
Be used to / Get used to
- Be used to
Be used to refers to how familiar something is for someone. It can occur in different tense forms. If you are (not) used to doing something, it is (not) familiar to you.
P.S.: The –ing form of the verb is used in this pattern (not the to-infinitive).
e.g.:
- She’s used to getting up early every day. (familiar/accustomed to)
(be used to + verb-ing) - I wasn’t used to driving such a big car. (not familiar/accustomed to)
(be used to + verb-ing) - She’s used to long distance relationships. (familiar/accustomed to)
(be used to + noun phrase/object)
- She’s used to getting up early every day. (familiar/accustomed to)
- Get used to
The form of get used to helps you talk about something that has become familiar to you. Something you’re adapted to.
e.g.:
- After a few months, I got used to driving my new car. (adapted to)
(get used to + verb-ing) - I’m finding this new job hard but I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon. (adapted to)
(get used to + object) - She got used to her new work environment.
(adapted to)
(get used to + noun phrase)
- After a few months, I got used to driving my new car. (adapted to)
- Dan’s used to hard time.
- He got used to the new programming language.
Used to + verb / Would + verb
-
Use to + verb:
Used to refers to habits or states that happened or were true at a certain moment in the past but are no longer the case today.
e.g.:
-
My mom used to live in Bafang, but now she lives in Douala.
(= My mom no longer lives in Bafang)
- I used to go swimming in the afternoon after work.
(= I no longer go swimming in the afternoon after work)
P.S.: When asking questions or making negative statements, the d is dropped from used to.
e.g.:
- Did you use to get vegetables delivered to your door?
- Mom didn’t use to wear make-up.
-
My mom used to live in Bafang, but now she lives in Douala.
-
Would + verb:
Would can also refer to habitual or regular actions in the past, similarly to used to.
e.g.: Mom used to bake cakes. My daughter would go to her house and watch.
However, with would, the past time frame must be clear. The past time frame is often established with used to or a time expression such as when I was younger, a little girl/boy … .
e.g.: When I was a child, we’d (read: we would) often go to my grandparents’ house.
P.S.: Would isn’t normally used for questions about the past
Pratical Exercise: Used to + verb / Would + verb