Let's think about where we can put negation in an English sentence.

Consider the following sentence:

He might like Jay Chou.

Now let's put the negation word "not" into this sentence.

Where can you put "not" in this sentence? List all the possibilities.

The only possible way to negate that sentence was: He might not like Jay Chou.

From this, maybe we can conclude that the place to put negation in English is right before the main verb ("like").

Let's test that out. Try to negate the following sentences:

1. He is an alien.
2. He eats pie.

Does the "put not before the main verb" rule work for these sentences? If not, why? Where does negation go in these two sentences?

The negated version of He is an alien is He is not an alien. Therefore, we can't claim that negation goes before the verb of the sentence. In this case, it comes after.

But for He eats pie, we can't put negation after the verb: *He eats not pie is not grammatical in modern English. (Interestingly, though, this was grammatical in older versions of English, such as Middle English [such as the English used by Chaucer in the 14th century.) Instead, we have to say He does .

Try to state a rule about where negation can go in English, with respect to the verb. Keep in mind the distinction between main verbs and auxiliary verbs (which kind of verb is is, and which kind of verb is eats?). Don't search for a rule online; the purpose of this activity is for you to try thinking of a rule yourself. I don't care if your answer is correct or not, I just care that your answer demonstrates your own thinking.