Page 160 - Basic English Usage

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214 negative questions

1 Structure

[ auxiliary verb + n't + subject... |

Doesn’t she understand?
Haven’t you booked your holiday yet?

[ auxiliary verb + subject + not... |

Does she not understand?
Have you not booked your holiday yet?
The forms with not are formal.

2 Meaning
When we ask a negative question, we often expect the answer yes.
Didn’t you go and see Helen yesterday? How is she?
Negative questions are common in exclamations and invitations.
Isn't it a lovely day!
Won'’t you come in for a minute?
We can use negative questions to show that we are surprised that
something has not happened, or is not happening.
Hasn’t the postman come yet?
Aren’t you supposed to be working?

3 Polite requests
We do not usually use negative questions to ask people to do things for
us. Compare:
Can you help me? (ordinary question: used for a request)
You can’t help me, can you? (negative statement + question tag:
common in spoken requests)
Can’t you help me? (negative question: has a critical meaning — like
Why can’t you help me?)
See 286 for more information about polite requests.

4 yesand no
We answer negative questions like this.
‘Haven't you written to Mary?’
‘Yes.’ ( = | have written to her.)
‘No.’ ( = | haven't written to her.)
‘Didn’t the postman come?’
‘Yes.’ ( = He came.) ‘No.’ ( = He didn't come.)