CONFUSING: EACH / EVERY / EITHER / NEITHER

Take a look at this chart to distinguish the confusing uses of these words: EACH, EVERY, EITHER, NEITHER.

PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE IN AFFIRMATIVE, NEGATIVE & QUESTIONS

A basic chart of how affirmative, negative & questions structures work in English for the Present, Past and Future.

NEGATIVE PREFIXES

Complete info on prefixes and suffixes on a previous post HERE.

DIFFERENT WAYS TO SAY "NO"

Here's a compilation of ways to say "NO" tactfully, that is to disagree.

COLLOCATIONS WITH "CAN'T"

Some charts with some collocations with modal verb CAN'T  that make up useful and common expressions.

EXPRESSING THE NEGATIVE: NO, NONE, NONE OF

The word no never precedes: a, an, the, any, much, many, enough. 

No is used:

• as an exclamation.
• as an adjective before singular and plural nouns.

Not is used:

• as an adverb to make a sentence negative. 
• to make an adjective or adverb negative.
• in short replies with a number of verbs.

Examples:

• We have no money in the bank now.
• We do not have any money in the bank now.

• There are no books in the bookcase.
• There are no English books in the bookcae.
• There are not any books in the bookcase.

• Do you like coffe? No, I don't.
• Didn't you finish it? No, I didn't.

• Don't you want this?               Not at all.
• Won't you be mad at us?        Not in the least.
• Aren't you going to go?          Not right now.
• Who took my book?                Not I.

AGREEING: SO, TOO / EITHER, NEITHER

These is the structure you use in English when you want to agree with what another person says:

SO+auxiliary verb+Subject or repeat the same using TOO at the end.

Similarly to Question Tags.

NEGATIVE & QUESTION FORMATION IN ENGLISH

Two charts to show you the structures of negative sentences and questions in English. Remember that in English you need AUXILIARY VERBS to make negative sentences and questions. Each auxiliary verb is different depending on the VERB TENSE the sentence is. Check below in each chart with the auxiliary verb forms of each verb tense and the examples.

1) NEGATIVES

2) QUESTIONS

More about making questions HERE.

A COMMON MISTAKE: DOUBLE NEGATIVES

Be careful if you have to use a double negative: use the negative form of the verb and a word with a negative meaning. Two negatives in English make an affirmative, never use two negative words in the same sentence. Above you see how you have to solve this.

INDIFINTE PRONOUNS: COMPOUNDS WITH SOME-, ANY-, NO- & EVERY-

Here's a chart with the possible compounds of SOME-, ANY, NO- & EVERY- with -ONE/-BODY to refer to people, -THING to refer to things and -WHERE to refer to places.

These words are used as SOME, ANY are. NO in negative sentences with postive verbs.

...AFTER COMES AGREEING OR DISAGREEING

Once an opinion is given, you can agree or disagree with it. These are different ways of expressing that you either agree or diasgree with what another person says. Most are typical conversational ways of agreeing or not.

To agree with an affirmative statement:

To agree with a negative statement:

To disagree: you can simply use the opposite form of the corresponding auxiliary verb:

- "I am happy" - "I'm not"

- "I am not hungry" - "I am"

- "We went to the concert last night" - "I didn't"

- Mike can't reach the top shelf" - "I can"

etc...

Other basic expressions to agree or disagree:

Some more:

Grading the level of agreement/disagreement: