In the English Grammar Profile, B2 Point 99 in the category of CLAUSES & imperatives is defined as: ‘DO NOT’ for EMPHASIS in formal contexts We do not believe ‘formality’ is essential to make this structure B2. *We have expanded this point because the first person imperative can be negated simply by inserting ‘not’ after the […]
Do not (imperative) Read More »
B2 example: Our volunteers know that the families who benefit from his generosity not only appreciate his action but take extra pleasure in knowing that it comes with the compliments of Mrs Brown, an iconic and internationally famous Dublin mother. C1 example: Not only did this virus continue in the places where they’d already become infected, but then it started to escalate and we saw the case numbers that you see here, something we’d never seen before on such a scale, an exponential increase of Ebola
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 87 in the category of CLAUSES and related to imperatives is ‘let’s not’ + base form of a main verb to make a suggestion. 1 LET’S NOT FORGET 13135 1 LET’S NOT FORGET THAT THIS IS 65 The following are similar to saying “don’t forget to” but it
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 86 in the category of CLAUSES is defined as: phrases or exclamations where the negative interrogative form of an auxiliary verb is used to express surprise or enthusiasm. This is a real challenge to search for. Surprise and enthusiasm are not something you can formally search for, but
surprise enthusiasm or negative exclamation Read More »
These are fixed expressions that are used to express a counterfactual or hypothetical situation in the past. They mean “if something had not happened, then something else would not have happened”. For example:
If it hadn’t been for your help, I would have failed the exam.
Had it not been for the storm, we would have arrived on time.
You can use different modals after these expressions, such as would, could, might. You can also invert the word order and omit “if”, as in the second example.
If it hadn’t been for / had it not been for + modal Read More »
The future perfect continuous negative tense allows us to express the absence of an ongoing action leading up to a specific future point. It highlights the non-occurrence or lack of continuity of the action within the given timeframe.
future perfect continuous negative Read More »
Here is a comprehensive analysis of the most common “BE + NOT” forms in English, essential for expressing negation. The forms are listed in order of their frequency in the iWeb corpus. The top three forms are “is not”, “are not”, and “isn’t”, used in various contexts to deny or contradict assertions, form negative statements, and express doubt or uncertainty. Other forms like “’s not”, “was not”, “wasn’t”, “I’m not”, “aren’t”, and “were not” are also discussed with examples illustrating their usage.
