Learn English – Negation in English

british-englishnegationno-notwriting-style

In English, there are at least two ways to express negation, for example:
— I don't have money
— I have no money

or
— No objects were found
— Objects were not found

or
— No restrictions are applied
— Restrictions are not applied

Questions:

  1. What is the difference between these two forms?
  2. Is it only the matter of style or there is more significant differences in the meaning of the sentences?
  3. When should we use the first one form and when the second?
  4. Do these two forms stress a difference between British and US English?

Best Answer

There are many differences between the couplets you mentioned, but it's hard to find a general rule that governs those differences. The root cause is, as Zibbobz mentions, that the negation is applied to different parts of the sentence, but the result is different in every case.

For instance, in your third example, first sentence, there are no restrictions which are applied, as opposed to the second sentence, where it's implied that restrictions do exist, but are not applied. In this case, it's because "Restrictions" are the subject of the sentence.

Your second exampleis a bit similar. "Objects were not found" could imply that the objects that were known to be there weren't found, as opposed to the first, which just implies that nothing was found, without implying anything about their existence.

In your first example, however, both sentences are more similar, but could still have nuances. The first might imply that you don't have money for something specific, or not have money on you at the moment, while the second might imply more of a general condition. Again, these are nuances, and can change depending on context.

So the answers to your question are:

  1. The difference depends on the sentence.
  2. Yes, the difference is more than stylistic
  3. Depending on what you want to convey. Language can be tricky.
Related Topic