There is/are no or not? I'd like to ask about the following two sentences: If there were NO sunlight, we could not live. (This one is correct) Can I say: If there were NOT sunlight, we could not l

Cathy Lin

There is/are no or not? I'd like to ask about the following two sentences: If there were NO sunlight, we could not live. (This one is correct) Can I say: If there were NOT sunlight, we could not live. do the two look and sound the same to native speakers? Is the second one grammatically correct? Thank you for answering my question.

Mar 22, 2017 12:52 AM

Answers · 3

Hi Cathy, If there were NO sunlight, we could not live. (This one is correct) We are using a quantifier to describe the quantity of sunlight we receive. In this case, we use the quantifier "no", which means not present. We use "not" together with modal verbs (such as "should", "would" etc) to form a negative sentence. (Example: There would not be sunlight.) Therefore, the correct sentence should be: "If there were NO sunlight, we could not live." Hope this helps. Cheers, Lance

March 22, 2017

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