1.4 Andrés's mother doesn't like cooking(3rd person negative)
Reflexiona
Paco knows his own likes, hobbies and interests well but he doesn't really know what to do with this huge amount of money.
One of the previous sentences is positive and the other one negative. Remember that in the Present Simple Tense we form the negative by means of the auxiliary verb DO, whose third person singular is DOES (do + es) and that the structure is:
Subject | Auxiliary |
NOT |
Verb (Bare infinitive) |
(Indirect Object) |
(Direct Object) |
My friend (He/She) | DOES | NOT | read | any books. | |
Her sister (She) | DOES | NOT | send | me | any letters. |
Ejercicio Resuelto
Paco's best friend: Andrés
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Imagen de Jim Gourley en Flickr. Licencia CC. |
Here you have some information about one of Paco's best friends, Andrés and his family:
- Andrés likes going to the cinema on Saturdays.
- He studies English at university.
- Andrés's sister washes his car every weekend.
- She loves going out with her friends.
- Andrés's mother cooks really well.
- She can spend the whole day cooking.
Change all the information provided about Andrés by writing the sentences in the negative.
Importante
The auxiliary verb DO is not used to form the negative forms of modal verbs or other auxiliary verbs such as to be. So, we say
Paco doesn't like watching all sports on TV,
- but
He isn't good at Mathematics (to be)
- or
He can't swim very well (modal verb)
Reflexiona
Listen to this song by Mariah Carey paying special attention to negative sentences and to the third person singular.
Vídeo de MariahCareyVEVO alojado en Youtube |
Did you notice?
"No, I can't forget this evening" (negative sentence with a modal verb: can't).
"That's just the way the story goes" (third person singular: That's; third person singular: the story goes).
"In your eyes your sorrow shows" (third person singular: your sorrow shows).
"No, I can't forget tomorrow" (negative sentence with a modal verb: can't).
"I can't live if living is without you" (negative sentence with a modal verb: can't; third person singular: living is).
Comprueba lo aprendido
Para saber más
The best way to improve the structure of English negative sentences is by doing lots of exercises.
- Click here to write easy negative sentences.
- And for further practice, click here.
Frequently, we say how often we do actions in the Present Simple tense. One of the main ways we have to say that in English is by means of adverbs of frequency. This is what we are going to study next.