Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences
– A contrastive analysis
Student: Chung Mỹ Linh
Class: 4A08
Instructor: Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ
Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy
Ho Chi Minh City, December 30th, 2011
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Introduction
“It’s a wise man that never makes mistakes.” Considering this sentence, it is difficult for
English learners to figure out what is meant by the use of negation. Actually, it is supposed
to be understood as “Everyone makes mistakes. Otherwise, he is heavenly wise.” What
signifies here is the understanding of sentence types and patterns to get the right message
of the sentence. There are 3 basic types of sentence: affirmative, negative and
interrogative. Negative is very common in English and Vietnamese sentences, along with
affirmatives. Negative forms in sentences are not only used to negate but also to
emphasize, to criticize or even to affirm something. Moreover, both languages have various
patterns and constructions .This nature results in a lot of confusion or misunderstanding
which language learners may encounter if the grammar points are not clearly understood.
This essay comprises four main sections. The first part, namely the Theoretical
framework, presents some detailed information about common negative form in English
and Vietnamese sentences. Second, the Discussion will compare and identify the
similarities and differences in terms of syntax and functions. Pedagogical Implications and
the Conclusion will follow with some suggestions with the hope that they can facilitate in
the process of teaching and learning the negative forms in English and Vietnamese
sentences . However, because of the limited scope, this paper just center on some
conventional forms and constructions of the negative forms in the two languages.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Theoretical framwork
Four main methods of negative sentence formation in English and Vietnamese are:
- By position: according to the placement of nuclear negatives, implied or semi-negative
forms and non-assertive contexts. This method is very popular, accounting for 91.15%
in English and 88.35% in Vietnamese.
- By forming negation by grammatical structure: employs interrogative pronoun: ai, nào,
làm sao, etc. or yes/no, Wh-question. This accounts for 8.77% in Vietnamese and
1.24% in English.
- By morphological modification: making negative meaning for a word by adding prefixes
or suffixes like “vô”, “bất”, in Vietnamese and –less, un-, in-, im-, etc. in English.
Statistics show 1.25% for Vietnamese and 6.75% for English on this method.
- By words – negative markers: making use of words that mean to negate itself like
lack(không có), deny(bác bỏ), refuse(từ chối), swear words, slangs, etc. This method
statistically occupies 1.74% in Vietnamese and 0.86% in English. (Phước, 2000)
One difficulty for language learners is that there are two types of negation: explicit
negations and implicit negations (Jackendoff, 1960). For implicit negations, learners are
required to brainstorm and employ their background knowledge to figure out the
connotation.
Negative form in Vietnamese
Words indicating negation:
-
Adverb: “chẳng”, “đừng”, “chớ”, “chưa”, “chả”, “không”, etc. to negate a quality, an
action or an event mentioned in the sentence.
For example:
Vietnamese
English equivalent
Tôi chẳng cần cậu.
I don’t need you.
Anh ta không thích món ăn cay.
He doesn’t like spicy food.
Cô ta không đẹp chút nào!
She isn’t beautiful at all.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
-
Verb:
o từ chối, phủ nhận, nghi ngờ, tránh, chống
o khỏi, thèm vào (slang).
For example:
Vietnamese
Anh ta từ chối lời mời của tôi.
English equivalent
He refused my invitation.)
Tôi thèm vào cái của ấy!
I disdain such thing!)
Chúng tôi quyết chống lại quyết định này.
We are against this policy. )
- Adjective: khó, trống trơn, etc.
For example:
Vietnamese
Tôi đã tìm thấy nhà anh ta nhưng nó trống
trơn.
English equivalent
His house was found but was empty.
Ý tưởng đó khó mà thực hiện.
The idea is impossible.
o
o
o
o
Noun:
About the abstract, the supernatural power : trời, chúa, ma, quỷ, thánh thần.
About the sex organs or the body’s waste.
Swear words: đéo, đếch, khỉ, chó , etc.
Số từ: con số không.
For example:
Vietnamese
Đẹp cái con khỉ.
Chỉ có chúa mới biết.
Có trời mà biết.
Tình cảm của chúng tôi giờ chỉ là con số
không.
English equivalent
She is fucking ugly.
Only God knows why.
Our love has vanished.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
- Pronoun:
Interrogative pronoun: gì, ai, nào, nào có, đâu, sao lại, làm gì, thế, etc.
For example:
-
Vietnamese
Nào ai có biết đâu!
English equivalent
We don’t know either.
Vui cái nỗi gì mà vui!
That was not funny.
Tao làm sao biết được nó đi đâu.
I don’t know where he is.
Fixed negative phrases/patterns :
Fixed negative pattern(including inconsecutive negative pattern) and negative pharses
“không”, “chẳng”, “chả”, “chưa” combine with indefinite time expressions “bao giờ”, “đời
nào”, or “một lần nào”, “một chút nào”, “tí nào” to form a negative construction.
For example:
Vietnamese
Tôi không bao giờ ăn món cay.
English equivalent
I never eat spicy food.
Tôi chưa một lần được đến trường.
Tôi chưa đến trường một lần.
I have never been to shool.
o Đâu có phải, đâu có, làm gì có, gì đâu
For example:
Vietnamese
English equivalent
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Đâu có phải anh ta làm.
It was not him who did that.
Làm gì có ai bắt nạt con bé đâu.
Nobody bullied her.
o Tưởng... lắm à.
For example:
Vietnamese
Mày tưởng dễ lắm à.
English equivalent
It is not that easy.
- Sino-Vietnamese words functioning as prefixes to form negative phrases,
namely “vô”, “”vị”, “bất”, etc.
For example:
Vietnamese
Câu chuyện này thật vô vị.
Ai lấy phải nó thì thật bất hạnh.
Cấm người vị thành niên.
-
Explanation
Câu chuyện này không hấp
dẫn, nhạt nhẽo.
Người nào lấy nó sẽ không
hạnh phúc.
Cấm người dưới 18 tuổi/ chưa
đủ tuổi công dân
English equivalent
This story is not interesting.
His wife wouldn’t be happy
living with him.
No admission for minors.
Construction with reduntdant negative words:
[Negative verb + negative word + action/ event, etc. ]
This construction expressess advice, forbiddance, refusal, prevention; often used as
causative negation. In such sentences, the negative words can be omitted without
changing the negative meaning.
For example:
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Vietnamese
Cấm không được đổ rác.
English equivalent
Do not litter.
Nó quên không mang ô.
She did not remember to bring an umbrella.
- Irony:
o Impossible or illogical event are mentioned in a sentence to create an ironic negative
meaning.
o Common phrases: mặt trời mọc đằng tây, mò kim đáy bể, bò có váy mặc, đến tết Công
Gô, etc.
For example:
Vietnamese
A: Nó có mua nhà cho bà không.
English equivalent
A: Does he buy you a house?
B: Nó mua cho tôi thì mặt trời mọc
đằng tây.
B: If so, pigs may fly.
(Meaning: He never buy me one.)
Negative form in English
- General rule:
o When be (is, am, are, was, were) is the main verb, we make negative forms by
putting “not” after to be.
Affirmative
She is tall.
Negative
She is not tall.
o When the main verb is a normal verb, we make negative forms by adding “not” after the
auxiliary verb/ modal verb and before the main verb and restore the main verb to its
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
infinitive form. Consider the tense and person(s) to make changes grammatically and
correctly.
Tense
Affirmative
Negative
I play games.
I do not play games.
You/ We play games.
You/ We do not play games.
He/She /It plays games.
He/She /It does not play games.
They play games.
They do not play games.
I am playing games.
I am not playing games.
You/ We are playing games.
You/ We are not playing games.
He/She /It is playing games.
He/She /It is not playing games.
They are playing games.
They are not playing games.
Simple Present
Present
Progressive
I played games.
Simple Past
You/ We played games.
He/She /It played games.
They played games.
Past
Progressive
Present Perfect
I did not play games.
You/ We did not play games.
He/She /It did not play games.
They did not play games.
I was playing games.
I was not playing games.
You/ We Were playing games.
You/ We Were not playing games.
He/She /It was playing games.
He/She /It was not playing games.
They Were playing games.
They Were not playing games.
I have played games.
I have not played games.
You/ We have played games.
You/ We have not played games.
He/She /It has played games.
He/She /It has not played games.
They have played games.
They have not played games.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Present Perfect
Progressive
I have been playing games.
I have not been playing games.
You/ We have been playing
games.
You/ We have not been playing games.
He/She /It has been playing
games.
He/She /It has not been playing games.
They have not been playing games.
They have been playing games.
Past Perfect
Simple
Future Simple
Future
Progressive
I had played games.
I had not played games.
You/ we had played games.
You/ we had not played games.
He/she/it had played games.
He/she/it had not played games.
They had played games.
They had not played games.
I will play games.
I will not play games.
You/ we will play games.
You/ we will not play games.
He/she/it will play games.
He/she/it will not play games.
They will play games.
They will not play games.
I will be playing games.
I will not be playing games.
You/ we will be playing games.
You/ we will not be playing games.
He/she/it will be playing games.
He/she/it will not be playing games.
They will be playing games.
They will not be playing games.
o We put “not” before to infinitives and -ing forms to make them negative.
Affirmative
Negative
He thanked me for coming.
He thanked me for not coming.
He advised me to leave.
He advised me not to leave.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Other forms:
By words or phrases:
-
No + Noun:
This form is used to emphasize the negative meaning in a sentence can applicale at
any place in a sentence depending on the speaker’s meaning.
I have no money.
No one understands your lecture.
I am by no means angry with you.
I will be there in no time.
-
Negative adverbs: seldom, barely, hardly, scarcely, rarely, never
These adverbs hold negative connotations themselvesself. Thus, there is no need to
modify the verb phrase in a negative sentence containing them. Except never, which
negate 100%, other adverbs still provide very rare possibility of something.
He seldom goes to the cinema. (Meaning: He almost never goes to the cinema.)
The country had scarcely any industry. (Meaning: The country had almost no industry.)
-
Ironic idioms: "When pigs fly!", "When hell freezes over." or "Not in a month of
Sundays!", “Building castles in the air”, etc.
I will get married with her when pigs fly. (Meaning: I can never marry her.)
By structure:
- too…to:
This phrase can be expanded into two sentences or a complex sentence. Its use is to
deny a possibility because the limit is exceeded.
The shelf was too high for me to reach.
= The shelf was too high for me. I can’t reach it.
- Either/Neither:
o not…either…or = neither
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
o neither …nor
A: I can’t speak Chinese.
B: Neither do I. / Me neither. / I can’t either. (Meaning: I also can’t speak Chinese.)
They brought neither tea nor coffee. (Meaning: They didn’t bring any tea or coffee.)
Neither of us has money. (Meaning: No one among us has money.)
- Negative+ comparative:
I couldn’t agree with you less. (Meaning: I totally don’t agree with you.)
You can’t find anything better. (Meaning: This is the best thing you can find.)
- Double negative:
[Negative + Negative = Positive]
It's unbelievable he is not rich. (He is absolutely rich. No doubt about it.)
Nothing is impossible. (There is possibility for everything as long as you try your best.)
- Prefixes or suffixes of negative meaning:
o un-, im-, in-, iro -less
The Internet in my hometown is very accessible.
The Internet in their hometown is very inaccessible.
Ann is a careful girl.
 Ann is a careless girl.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Discussion
Negative forms in sentences of both languages share similarities to some extent.
However, every language has distinctive features due to difference in culture, history,
nature, etc. Below, I would like to point out the similarities and dissimilarities of negative
forms in English and Vietnamese sentences after presenting and contrasting these two.
Similarities:
Firstly, and most easy way to express negation is to use verbs with negative
connotation, such as refuse, deny, reject, turn down, etc. There is direct equivalent in
Vietnamese with the similar use in negative sentences, like từ chối, phủ nhận, từ bỏ,
etc. These verbs’ function is to negate the event that follows.
Secondly, there are corresponding negative marker , such as negative adverb
“không” in Vietnamese and “no” or “not” English, phrases and their variants like không
ai, chẳng phải, chả, không có, etc. in Vietnamese and nothing, no one, not..at all,
nobody, not.. any (Thiêm, 2004).
Tôi không có tiền.
I don’t have money.
Không ai ưa nó.
Nobody like her.
Subsiquently, the use prefixes or suffixes in English can be associated with
Sino – Vietnamese words containing bất, vô, vị.


bất cẩn, vô vị, etc.
careless, tasteless, unhappy, dissimilar, inappropriate, etc.
Căn phòng thật là bất tiện.
The room was inconvenient.
Lastly, ironic expressions are also interesting match although the phrases
used are different in images. Ironic expressions in English can be listed as: "When pigs
fly!", "When hell freezes over.", "Not in a month of Sundays!", “Building castles in the
air”, etc. while in Vietnamese: mặt trời mọc đằng tây, mò kim đáy bể, bò có váy mặc,
đến tết Công Gô, etc. Both English and Vietnamese irony used to negate in a sentence
share the usage of refusing the preceded information. With mocking tone, this kind of
negation puts an emphasis on the utterance.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Difference:
English and Vietnamese belong to different language styles and families. English
isa member of Indo-European language family and classified as inflectional language,
which means that their verb forms need to be changed accordingly to perform certain
grammatical function. On the other hand, Vietnamese is of Austro-Asiatic and noninflectional one, that is, morphological changes are not needed to illustrate grammatical
features.
The general rule to form negative sentences in English and Vietnamese
resembles in one point, which is adding the adverb “not” or “không” to make the
negative form. However, the most significant different feature of the issue discussing is
the use of tense, along the verb inflection to signify the time of speaking. In Vietnamese,
the simple adverb ‘không’ is applicable in most cases. There is no such distinctness in
the tenses, so instead of conjugating verbs as in English, Vietnamese only use adverbs
or extra words to express time relation like “đã”, ”sẽ”, etc. Also, in Vietnamese there is
no verb conjugation according to the person as opposed to the first, second or third
person singular in English that requires appropriate verb conjugation. As a result, to
make negative form, the basic rule in Vietnamese is much simpler.
In Vietnamese, the most likely technique is to make use of words or phrases –
negative markers, while English employs both words and grammatical structure.
He is too young to join our journey.
= He is too young and therefore not allowed to join our journey.
Suggested translation: Cậu ấy quá trẻ nên không đi được.
Neither my parents nor I know about that man.
= My parents and I don’t know about that man.
Suggested translation: Ba mẹ tôi và tôi chẳng biết gì về anh ta.
Finally, the habit of making negative utterances with reduncant words is a big
divergence between two languages. In English, a sentence is obliged to be clear as
Math, like the structure Negative + Negative = Positive. Otherwise, the sentence’s
meaning will be miscomprehended. In Vietnamese, things are unlike. The optional
second “negative word” can be added to contribute to the idea of speaker without
changing meaning. Adding or omitting such redundant words with the meaning remains
unchanged.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
Regarding the contrastive analysis above, Vietnamese ESL students may
encounter some structures which are confusing like Double Negative, Negative +
Superlative, etc. or have difficulty recognizing the connotation of some phrases or
structures. Therefore, I would like to suggest some pedagogical implications for the
concerned issue as follow:
As for teachers, they should make it clear to learners the grammar structures and
aspects related to negative forms in English, reminding and emphasizing on tenses and
verb inflection. Due to the fact that negative forms are not merely to negate, but to
emphasize, or to affirm, teachers should pay particular attention to help recognize the
pattern implications so as to understand thoroughly and avoid mistakes later on resulted
from confusion.
Next, teachers should draw careful attention to translation, guide the students to
avoid word-by-word translation. Teachers’ model translation for each case can be very
helpful. Also, to produce a precise translation, ESL learners need systematic
understanding of different patterns.
As for ESL learners, learning the structure to express negative in each language is
important, especially when it comes to production stage with speaking and writing.
Mastering the use and structure, varying their manipulation of expressing ideas through
emphasizing, negating, exaggerating, etc. using negative forms enable them to make their
speech or composition sound better and natural in the target language.
Besides, learners should study not only the structures but also the functional use to
exploit it more effectively and apply their knowledge to many situations in life.
Conclusion
To recap, after all the theoretical presentation, contrasting and comparing, I hope that my
essay would be of some help in teaching, learning and translating sentences. Furthermore,
language mastery requires not only the structural accuracy but also the appropriate
manipulation in production stage and real-life situation. Therefore, ESL learners should
recognize and combine both aspects to make themselves more fluent and competent in
English. With some implications, I hope that ESL teachers and learners can perform better and
more effective in language acquisition process.
Negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences – A contrastive analysis
Reference
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Nguyễn, H. L. (2004). An outline of morphology. Hochiminh city: University of Education
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diện cấu trúc. Doctoral thesis.
Cẩm, T. T. (2007). Tạp chí khoa học ĐHQGHN, Ngoại ngữ 23, 155-166
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