Phrases with the word negative

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Recent Examples on the Web

Now, that masking period is a strong recommendation, unless an individual tests negative on back-to-back tests taken at least one day apart.


—Rong-gong Lin Ii, Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2023




The approach teaches you to restructure your negative and irrational thoughts around money into more neutral or positive ones.


—Jocelyn Solis-moreira, Popular Science, 4 Apr. 2023




Just Looking to Get More Info on You? Initial reaction online to GM’s move skewed decidedly negative.


—Sebastian Blanco, Car and Driver, 2 Apr. 2023




Amber Lee, Brawley’s campaign manager, said the level of public vandalism creates a negative, discouraging environment for candidates and for voters.


—Emily Goodykoontz, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Apr. 2023




According to research from Yale, people with negative attitudes about aging shorten their life expectancy by 7.5 years.


—L’oreal Thompson Payton, Fortune Well, 1 Apr. 2023




Viewers’ initial reactions to the trial appeared to skew negative, with some seeing Paltrow as the latest example of a celebrity who is trying to avoid accountability.


—Uwa Ede-osifo, NBC News, 31 Mar. 2023




Though most of the comments on the post were positive, some users felt the need to give their negative opinions on her looks.


—Rosa Sanchez, Harper’s BAZAAR, 30 Mar. 2023




That way, potentially negative news doesn’t derail the conversation or serve as the last thing that sticks in concerned clients’ minds.


—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 30 Mar. 2023

But some designers don’t see having a diminutive dozing space as a negative.


—Anna Fixsen, ELLE Decor, 7 Apr. 2023




Trump’s negatives with Republicans (19%) are nearly three times worse than those of DeSantis (7%).


—Chris Pandolfo, Fox News, 4 Apr. 2023




When the judge Florence Y. Pan asked if agents had a fiduciary duty to secure their writers the highest possible advances, Walsh responded in the negative.


—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2022




Overwhelmingly, the comments in response — almost 2,000 of them — were in the negative.


—Will Carless, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2023




In contrast to the themes of balance in the first quarter moon, the third quarter is about detaching yourself from the negative to prepare for transformation.


—Aliza Pelto, Women’s Health, 17 Mar. 2023




The social mandate was to be carbon neutral or carbon negative, and scalable.


—Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 7 Mar. 2023




Each end of tape has two contacts, one positive (+), one negative (-).


—Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 28 Feb. 2023




The photographs were known as Ambrotypes, and consisted of a glass negative developed so the silver deposit forming the picture was white, and then backed with black, so the picture looked like a positive, the photo being on the back of the glass.


—San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Feb. 2023

Travelers also need to negative COVID-19 test within one day of flying to return to the United States.


—Dallas News, 7 Feb. 2022




Regardless, the outcome of this trial might not impact the ex-couple’s career prospects in all that negative a way, Engelmayer predicted.


—Victoria Bekiempis, Vulture, 26 May 2022




On the way to scoring a 25-19, 25-9, 25-4 victory, UW was not blocked once, held the Bobcats to negative hitting in each set and in the final set tied a program record for fewest points allowed in a set.


—Mark Stewart, Journal Sentinel, 2 Dec. 2022




And passengers boarding international flights to the U.S. no longer need to test negative a day before departure or prove recovery from Covid in the past 90 days.


—Allison Pohle, WSJ, 2 Aug. 2022




But with sales growth expected to go from triple digits in 2021 to negative this year, shares have tanked to a record low recently.


—Yueqi Yang, Time, 20 Apr. 2022




In response, Moody’s Investors Service recently lowered its outlook for the sector to negative.


—Nick Sargen, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2021




Eversource Energy executives are on the defensive after two ratings agencies cut the credit outlook to negative for Connecticut Light & Power, citing its run-ins with state regulators over the utility’s response to Tropical Storm Isaias last year.


—Stephen Singer, courant.com, 2 Aug. 2021




Positive antibody test results, which are by no means an absolute guarantee of immunity, will be accepted to enter, as will negative COVID-19 tests taken up to seven days prior to arrival.


—Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times, 17 Jan. 2021


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What are negatives?

A negative is a word or phrase that shows you reject or disagree with something. We use negatives all the time in regular conversation, so a lot of these words should be familiar to you.

Can’t, don’t, and won’t are all common negatives (as well as isn’t, doesn’t, and not). Words like never and nobody are negatives too—they just express disagreement in a different way.

Negative doesn’t necessarily mean that something is bad or that you have a negative attitude. It just means you’re negating something—in other words, stating that the opposite is true. You could be referring to anything: good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. It might help to picture it this way:

Using negatives

Many negatives are simply the opposite of words we already know. When writing a negative, start with a basic verb, then add the word not. You can write the words separately or as a contraction.

To use a negative in a sentence, place it in front of an idea—specifically another verb, noun, or adjective. This is how you tell the reader exactly what you’re referring to (and more importantly, what you’re trying to negate).

See how the words above work together to give the sentence meaning? Don’t refers to lick, and not refers to sanitary. Imagine what the sentence would look like without any negatives:

Lick the floor; it’s sanitary.

Not only is that gross, but it also means the opposite of the original sentence. It still makes sense (sure, you could lick the floor if you wanted to), but without don’t and not, the message isn’t the same.

More negatives

We use negatives like can’t and won’t because they’re so familiar, but the truth is that there are many ways to write a negative sentence. For instance, have you ever simply said no to reject or disprove something?

Lots of words have opposites, like yes/no, and everyone/no one. Many opposites even include the word no somewhere in the spelling, which makes them easy to remember.

Negative prefixes

Some negatives don’t sound like negatives because they don’t include the words no or not. Take unhappy, asymmetrical, nonsense, and dislike. All of these words have a negative prefix that changes the meaning from one thing to another. Negative prefixes include a-, dis-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, non-, and un-.

Neither/nor

The words neither/nor can also be used to form a negative. (They’re the opposite of either/or.) Use them to negate or reject two or more things at once. In a sentence, they look like this:

Neither/nor and either/or can’t be used interchangeably. For example, you wouldn’t say I’m neither happy or sad. That might sound correct, but it’s not quite right. Neither and nor go together because they’re both negatives—you can’t mix and match. It might help to remember that they both start with the letter n.

Negative adverbs

Words like hardly, seldom, rarely, and never can be used to negate things in a different way. Unlike don’t and won’t, they have different degrees of meaning. Take the example below. Notice how the meaning of the sentence changes depending on the negative, from absolute to something more open-ended.

Double negatives

A double negative occurs when you use more than one negative in a sentence. Funnily enough, this changes the meaning of the sentence so it’s no longer negative at all—it’s affirmative instead.

Some double negatives are intentional, like in the example above. When the man answers I can’t NOT look at it, he means his friend’s mole is impossible to avoid. In order words, yes: He is looking at the mole. The double negative is being used for comedic effect.

Some double negatives are unintentional, however. This can be confusing and can even make the sentence difficult to read. Chances are people will still understand what you’re talking about, but they might think something sounds a little off.

If you find yourself using a double negative, ask yourself: Is it intentional? Will the reader understand what you’re trying to say? If it changes the meaning of the sentence to something you don’t want, you can take one of the negatives out or change it to a positive. This should help you avoid any confusion.

Some people will tell you that double negatives are bad and that you should never use them. This isn’t necessarily true. In the right context (for example, stylized writing or conversation), they can be used to convey subtlety, hesitation, or even a certain attitude.

What about ain’t? It’s used in many parts of the United States as a play on words, like aren’t, isn’t, and am not. Because ain’t is a slang term, it’s best to avoid using it in formal writing (like an academic paper or work email)—the reader might think you’re not taking the subject seriously. In conversation and casual writing, however, ain’t is often OK.

As you just learned, there are many ways to form a negative. See if you can spot the negatives below, and click the yellow dots to learn more.

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