Affirmative sentences
These are sentences that affirm things. They express the truth or authority of a basic declaration. We also use this type of sentence to express our agreement or consent to something.
So,
I am a teacher
is an affirmative sentence. It is seeking to establish my identity. It’s telling a fact. It is telling that is what I am. Let’s look at another example:
Dogs bark
This is an affirmative sentence that makes a positive declaration. It is again telling us a fact. It is telling us this is what dogs do – they bark. It asserts a proposition of an activity that dogs do.
Some other examples of positive assertions could be:
Mridula sings very beautifully.
You’ve been working very hard. You look tired!
He’s learning English and Spanish.
Cotton cloth, plain weave, with a simple selvage on both sides prevents unravelling of yarn.
A drug is misbranded if it is not labelled in the prescribed manner.
Negative Assertions
The opposite of assertive is negative. It says something is not. We normally add a negative ‘particle ‘not’. So, we can say,
I am not a doctor.
It negates the proposition of my profession. It says I may be anything but a doctor. I may be a lawyer, a sweeper, a beggar, anything! But I am not a doctor!
Some other examples of negative assertions could be:
The case has not been filed yet.
You can’t gather anywhere during a lock-down.
Your product doesn’t meet the minimum requirements stated in our purchase order.
A licensee whose licence has been cancelled cannot appeal to the Central Government after three months of the date of the order.
Let’s look at the word order in the following two kinds of sentences: