Is there a specific rule, or set of rules, that can be followed to know when to use each word? I have noticed that not is usually used with a verb, but I think that there sometimes are exceptions although I can't think of one now
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At the linguistics conference, there wereThey're all grammatically "valid", but they all mean different things - and pragmatically / idiomatically, only the no / not / non-native speakers of Esperanto. version is likely to be used. Oct 1, 2015 at 13:36 no
## 2 Answers
*Not* is a negative adverb; *no* is a negative quantifier; *non*- is a negative prefix
Since negation is so important, thousands of idioms use each of these, among other negatives
Consequently there are
**lots** of exceptions to the general rules below. Non- is not a word, but a part of another word, usually a descriptive adjective:
non-lethal, non-professional, non-native, non-technical, non-playing
(The hyphen is optional.) Each of these mean "anything but-- anything that doesn't
you is non-lethal, anything that's not technical is non-technical, etc
This meaning contrasts with
un- and in-, which refer to opposites instead of complements. Nois half of the answer pair Yes/No, shading off vocally into Nah, Nuh-uh,and Uh-uh
But it can also quantify and negate any noun phrase:
Some blade of grass ~ No blade of grass; One who saw it ~ No one who saw it. Notis the general negator for verb phrases, including predicate adjectives and nouns
In a verb phrase,
notoccurs immediately after the first auxiliary verb
If there is no auxiliary verb in the verb phrase,
Do-Support supplies a form of do
Notis contracted whenever possible, with auxiliaries or subjects (especially pronouns):
He's not interested ~ He isn't interested; She doesn't like it, but not * She not likes it
Any of these negatives (and many others) can negate a sentence, changing its truth value
It's easy to switch between them, too; the sentences below all mean the same thing:
They allowed no phone calls. They didn't allow phone calls. No one allowed phone calls. Phone calls weren't allowed
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1I was wondering why you hadn't answered this. And then as if by magic + Oct 1, 2015 at 14:37
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Neither one. I would say
We need something that doesn't interfere with the image,because needdoesn't take a gerund complement clause. Aug 29, 2018 at 2:37
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Re your comment, isn't "We need something not interfering with the image" grammatical even if considered as the elided variant of "We need something
_which isnot interfering with the image"? And what about the latter sentence('s grammaticality)? Mar 2, 2020 at 2:15
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All of them have different usages and can quite clearly defined in that different contexts
Some example sentences for
**no
As for the drink, there was no point in bringing that up
Carmen had given Josh no encouragement
Some examples sentences for
**not
I'm not too keen on that decision
That I am not prepared to say
Some example sentences for
**non** as a prefix
non-eligible
non-human
After quite some time searching I couldn't find any rules in which those words obey to. As you can see in my linked sites though there are quite a few entries in which
**not** is before a verb and little of any others. This is hard to draw a conclusion to make a hard and fast rule
As you can see, it is quite defined in which each word is used. I can't think of any that could be used interchangeably at the moment. I'll accept suggestions to improve this.
Morella Almånd
