A negative sentence says that something is not true or does not happen. English often makes a sentence negative with not. The word not comes after a verb or after an auxiliary verb.

With the verb be, put not after am, is, or are. This makes the sentence negative in the present. In the past, put not after was or were.

Subject	Form
I	am not
he, she, it	is not
you, we, they	are not
I, he, she, it	was not
you, we, they	were not

When a sentence has an auxiliary verb, put not after the auxiliary verb. This pattern is used with verbs like can, will, and have. The main verb stays in its normal form.

Verb	Form
can	cannot
will	will not
have	have not
has	has not
had	had not

In the simple present, many verbs do not use not by themselves. Use do not with I, you, we, and they. After do not, the main verb stays in the base form.

Subject	Form
I	do not
you	do not
we	do not
they	do not

In the simple present, use does not with he, she, and it. After does not, the main verb stays in the base form. The main verb does not take s in this negative form.

Subject	Form
he	does not
she	does not
it	does not

In the simple past, use did not to make negatives with most verbs. Use it with all subjects. After did not, the main verb stays in the base form.

Subject	Form
I	did not
you	did not
he, she, it	did not
we	did not
they	did not

You can now understand and make simple negative sentences in English. You can use not with be and with auxiliary verbs. You can also use do not, does not, and did not with main verbs in the present and past.