Negative Questions

In a yes/no question in which the verb is negative, usually a contraction is used:

--Doesn"t she live with you?

The other form, which is not contracted, is considered formal and is rarely used in everyday speech:

--Does she not live with you?

To form a negative question, make the auxiliary negative by adding not:

--Do they cash traveler"s checks?
--> Don"t they (Do they not) cash...?
 
HERE ARE SOME MORE EXAMPLES:

--Is Mr. Jones here?
-->Isn"t Mr. Jones here?

--Are you coming?
-->Aren"t you coming?

Possessive Adjectives

Here are the possessive adjectives in English:

1st person, singular -- my

3rd person, singular -- his, her, its

1st person, plural -- our

2nd person, sing./pl. -- your

3rd person, plural -- their

In English, the gender and number of the possessor determines the form of the possessive adjective:

--I have a credit card. It"s my credit card.

--She has some money. It"s her money.

NOTE: Often the subject of the verb is not the person who owns the noun. Be careful about this. You must know the gender and number of the owner to be able to use possessive adjectives correctly:

--Are you buying his ticket or her ticket?

--I"m buying his ticket.

Negatives

The word not is used with do to make a verb negative, as in I don"t have any money (don"t = do not). No is used as an adjective in front of a noun, as in I have no money. Both of these examples are acceptable ways of expressing the idea that you do not have something.

Note these contracted negative forms with do:

I don"t
you don"t
he, she doesn"t
they don"t
we don"t

Here are some affirmative words and their negative forms in English:

AFFIRMATIVES

someone, anybody
something, anything
still
ever
either... or

NEGATIVES

no one, nobody
nothing
no longer
never
neither... nor
 
Avoid using more than one negative in a clause:

--I don"t have any money.
NOT: I don"t have no money.

--They don"t see anybody.
NOT: They don"t see nobody.

--I didn"t do anything.
NOT: I didn"t do nothing.

Tag Questions

Tag questions are questions that are added at the end of a sentence.

--Mary is here, isn"t she?
--You like beer, don"t you?
--They are leaving, aren"t they?
--She doesn"t drink coffee, does she?
--He has brown hair, doesn"t he?

The subject of the tag question should be the same as the subject of the main verb. If the first part of the sentence is in the affirmative, then the tag question will be negative, and vice versa.
 

In American English, a form of do is usually used when have is the main verb: They have change, don"t they?

Interrogatives in Dependent Clauses

In the dialogue for this chapter, you see:

--Do you know where I can cut off the water? (correct)

This construction can be troublesome for learners of English, because there is a tendency to make the dependent clause (where I can cut off...) a question as well:

--Do you know where can I cut off the water? (incorrect)

Both do you know and where can I cut off the water are legitimate questions when used separately. However, when combined in a single sentence the main clause (Do you know...) carries the full weight of the interrogative.

Here are some additional examples:

--Do you see it? Where is it?
-->Do you see where it is?
--Do you know when? When does he arrive?
-->Do you know when he arrives?