student asking question

What is different from saying "I think we can't turn anymore!"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

"I don't think we can turn anymore" is different from saying "I think we can't turn anymore" because "don't" at the beginning of the sentence makes the sentence "negative". A "negative" sentence is a sentence that says something false, and does this by adding "not" after an auxiliary verb at the beginning of the sentence. Here, this sentence has "don't" (do not) at the beginning, so that means "we can turn anymore" is a false statement. "I think we can't turn anymore" is grammatically correct, but sounds unnatural because the sentence starts out "positive" with "I think", but becomes negative with "can't".

Popular Q&As

04/20

Complete the expression with a quiz!