Mid Position of Adverbs in Negative Sentences I read a grammer book which says an adverb can be put between the first auxiliary verb and the main verb of a sentence, such as “She will never give up.”.

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Mid Position of Adverbs in Negative Sentences I read a grammer book which says an adverb can be put between the first auxiliary verb and the main verb of a sentence, such as “She will never give up.”. I’d like to clarify if the rule is applicable to negative sentences too. Are all of the following sentences or only sentences 1) & 3) correct? 1) Boys don’t usually do their homework as carefully as girls. 2) Boys usually don’t do their homework as carefully as girls. 3) Boys do not usually do their homework as carefully as girls. 4) Boys usually do not do their homework as carefully as girls. Looking forward to your reply. Thank you in advance!

Jul 14, 2015 8:49 AM

Answers · 9

Follow the advice of your grammar book, and you won't have problems. All of your sentences are understandable, but sentences 2 and 4 sound a little awkward. It seems that the "usually don't do" is fairly recent in English. Sentence 1 sounds most comfortable, and sentence 3 sounds cold and formal.

July 14, 2015

I agree sentence 1 of those listed would be the most appropriate to use.However, the end phrases 'as carefully as girls' seem a little odd and disjointed. More natural to use a simpler construction such as: Boys are not as careful over/with their homework, as girls.

July 15, 2015