Transformation of Affirmative Sentences to Negative Sentences - Rules and Examples

Affirmative sentences is a term used to refer to sentences that are positive. Negative sentences, on the other hand, are those sentences that refer to the non-occurrence of an action or the absence of a quality. To learn how to transform an affirmative sentence into a negative sentence, go through the article. Try to comprehend the rules to be followed when doing the transformation and also check out the examples to learn how exactly it is done.

Table of Contents

• Transforming an Affirmative Sentence into a Negative Sentence – Rules to be Followed with Examples
  • Change in Pronouns/Verbs/Adjectives/Adverbs in Sentence Transformation
• Frequently Asked Questions on Transformation of an Affirmative Sentence into a Negative Sentence

Transforming an Affirmative Sentence into a Negative Sentence – Rules to be Followed with Examples

Changing a sentence from the positive to negative can be done easily by adding ‘not’ or the contraction ‘nt. Go through the following points to learn how exactly it has to be done.

• The first thing you will have to do is to locate the principal verb or the main verb in the sentence.
• Once you do, the next step is to add ‘not’ after all forms of the ‘to be’ verb (am, is, are, was, were).
• Sentences with modal verbs (will, would, shall, should, can, may, might, etc.) can be made negative by adding ‘not’ in between the modal auxiliary and the main verb.
• Sentences with helping verbs including ‘have’, ‘has’ and ‘had’ can be transformed into a negative sentence by adding ‘not’ after the helping verb.
• When verbs such as ‘have’, ‘has’ and ‘had’ are used as main verbs, you will need to use the verb forms of ‘do’ followed by ‘not’ and ‘have’ to make the sentence negative.
• For all positive sentences having ‘do’ forms of verbs (do, does, did) as the main verb, converting it into negative can be done by adding ‘not do’ after the verb.
• A positive sentence with one main verb can be changed to negative by using various forms of the ‘do’ verb (do, does, did) followed by ‘not’ and the main verb.
• In a sentence containing two verbs – one or more auxiliary verbs and a main verb – see to it that you add ‘not’ in between the helping verb and the main verb.

Let us look at a few examples to learn how

Change in Pronouns/Verbs/Adjectives/Adverbs in Sentence Transformation

When changing positive sentences into negative sentences, you might have to sometimes change the pronoun, verb, adjective or adverb in the sentence. When you are required to do so, make sure you do not change the meaning of the sentence. In order to do that, you will have to change the pronoun as well as the verb/adjective in the sentence. Check out the following table for examples.