When “not” is used before an adverb, it typically forms a negative construction that modifies the action or verb it is associated with. This construction is used to indicate the absence or negation of the quality or manner expressed by the adverb.
Next, we want to know the most common adverbs in this position, so we do a search in iWeb corpus for:
_XX _RR
and then add the results into text inspector attempting to find the most common adverbs after ‘not’ in order:
‘not even‘ can be used to emphasize that something is not true or didn’t happen. The phrase is B1 in the English Vocabulary Profile.
Here are the collocates of ‘not even’ in the movie corpus:
1 CLOSE 443
2 YET 398
3 ANYMORE 215
I‘m not even allowed to swim with her anymore.
4 SUPPOSED 164
5 ANYONE 133
6 LISTENING 106
7 WORTH 105
8 HUMAN 86
9 ALLOWED 72
10 DRESSED 55
11 AWARE 45
12 REMOTELY 44
13 MOUSE 37
14 EXIST 35
15 MENTION 34
16 STIRRING 32
17 LOADED 31
18 KNOWING 27
19 HALFWAY 26
20 PAYING 25
B1: allowed, exist, human, mention, stirring, supposed, worth
Some of these ‘negative + adverb’ phrases are C1:
that many of my neighbors realized that
although they lived farther inland from the ocean,
they weren’t necessarily less vulnerable to the rising seas.
‘not quite‘ = almost but not completely. It’s B2 in the English Vocabulary Profile.
A search in iWeb corpus for:
* _XX quite *
1 ISN’T QUITE AS 5247
*this negative and modified complex comparative structure is actually more C1.
Let me add that ” Polish Prison “ isn’t quite as hilarious as it sounds.
2 ‘M NOT QUITE SURE: I am not quite sure what you mean.
3 IS NOT QUITE AS: This is not quite as good as I expected.
4 ‘S NOT QUITE AS: It’s not quite as easy as I thought it would be.
5 BUT NOT QUITE AS: This is a good book, but not quite as good as the last one I read.
6 I’M NOT QUITE SURE: I am not quite sure what you are asking.
7 DON’T QUITE UNDERSTAND: I don’t quite understand what you are saying.
8 AREN’T QUITE AS: These results are not quite as good as we expected.
9 ARE NOT QUITE AS: These two products are not quite as similar as they seem.
10 IS NOT QUITE THE: This is not quite the same as what I ordered.
11 WASN’T QUITE AS: The movie wasn’t quite as good as I hoped it would be.
12 BUT NOT QUITE.: I like this book, but not quite as much as the last one I read.
13 ‘S NOT QUITE THE: This is not quite the same as what I expected.
14 DON’T QUITE KNOW: I don’t quite know what to say.
15 IT’S NOT QUITE AS: This is not quite as easy as I thought it would be.
16 AM NOT QUITE SURE: I am not quite sure what you mean.
17 ISN’T QUITE THE: This is not quite the same as what I ordered.
18 ‘RE NOT QUITE SURE: You are not quite sure what you want.
19 . NOT QUITE AS: This is not quite as good as I expected.
20 WASN’T QUITE SURE: I wasn’t quite sure what to do.
- “I’m not quite sure” – This phrase is used when someone is uncertain about something. For example, in the movie “The Matrix,” the character Trinity says “I’m not quite sure,” when asked if she knows how to fly a helicopter.
- “Is not quite as” – This phrase is used to describe something that is almost but not quite the same as something else. For example, in the movie “The Lion King,” the character Scar says “I’m surrounded by idiots… Not you three, you’re not quite so stupid.”
- “Don’t quite understand” – This phrase is used when someone doesn’t fully comprehend something. For example, in the movie “The Big Lebowski,” the character Walter says “I don’t quite understand your logic there, Dude.”