English Grammar Drills

240 Sentences
can’t
I can not imagine doing it any other way.
1. We should not get stuck in traffic this time of day.
2. They must not do that.
3. They will not identify themselves.
4. The kids have not flown by themselves before.
5. The time allotted for the presentations was not equally divided.
6. I might not be able to come to the reception.
7. Unfortunately, we were not prepared for such an emergency.
8. They may not have the necessary documentation.
9. It probably would not make any difference anyway.
10. We can not get the authorization to hire the new staff.
When a sentence does not have a modal auxiliary, helping verb, or be used as a main verb,
we must insert the dummy auxiliary verb do immediately in front of the first verb. By exactly the
same process we saw with questions, do takes the present or past tense marker from the first verb,
leaving that verb in the uninflected, base form. Again, we will call this the do insertion rule. The
do insertion rule creates an emphatic version of the sentence. Here is an example:
Underlying positive statement:
Do insertion rule:
Most people today smoke.
Most people today do smoke.
Next, we need to use the not insertion rule to insert not immediately after the first verb just
as we did in sentences with auxiliary and helping verbs:
Not insertion rule:
Most people today do not smoke.
Here are some more examples:
Underlying positive statement:
Do insertion rule:
Not insertion:
Underlying positive statement:
Do insertion rule:
Not insertion:
I like living in New York.
I do like living in New York.
I do not like living in New York.
They know where it is.
They do know where it is.
They do not know where it is.