Now we talk about Full Negation.

A full negation is usually formed in three ways:

* Full negative + affirmative predicate:

Nobody succeeds. / He was never kinds.

* Full affirmative + words with negative prefixes or suffixes, or words implying negation:

He was always unkind. / Everybody fails.

* Not… any… (Negative predicate + indefinite pronoun or adverb):

He cannot remember anything. / I do not know any of them.

Examples:

  1. All his words are incredible.

他的话靠不住。

  1. Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

人人谈论天气,但个个对天气都无所作为。

The following are some ways to deal with a few frequently-used negatives: no, not, none, never, neither (nor).

*NO / NOT

“no” is much stronger and therefore more emphatic than “not”.

Examples:

  1. It is not a joke. 这不是开玩笑。

It is no joke. 这是正经事。

  1. He is not a fool.他不是傻瓜。

He is no fool.他很精明。

  1. There are no more than 50 workers in this large factory.

这家大工厂竟只有50个工人。

There are no less 500 workers in this small factory.

这家小工厂的工人竟多达500人。

* NONE

As a full negative, “none” is likewise stronger than “not”:

Examples:

  1. He explained this sentence to me, but I’m none the wiser.

他给我解释这一句,但我仍然一点也不懂。

  1. I’m none too sure about him.

我对他这个人拿不准。

*NEVER

Another full negative, “never” is used in a strong prohibition.

Examples:

  1. Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.

决不要把今天能做的事留到明天去做。

  1. Never buy a pig in a poke.

切勿买下没有过目的东西。

*NEITHER (NOR)

These two full negatives may be used correlatively or separately.

Neither is good.两者皆不好。

Both are good.两者皆好。

Neither book / Neither of the books is good. (=They are both bad) 两本书都不好。

Both books are good.两本书都好。

Neither of the sisters is here. 姐妹俩都不在这里。

Both sisters are not here. 并不是姐妹俩都在这里。(一个在这里,一个不在这里)

Hope all these will help us to make correct understanding on negation and output accurate translation.