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How do we differentiate the use of "no", "not" and "none" ?
I do not have a chair
I do no have a chair
I have no a chair
I have none a chair

malianto
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    Hi, malianto, and welcome to EL&U. You might be interested in our sister site, ELL, which is a good site for basic English questions. Please have a look at the quick tour of EL&U and ELL to determine where you can best be helped! – anongoodnurse Jun 20 '14 at 06:46
  • @cyberherbalist, Mari-lou A, Josh61, Robusto, Andrew What is the difference between *no* and *none? the only respondent seems to think none* is a version of *not* and *one* is this your thinking? If so, is 'none' closer to 'not' or 'one'? What king of word is 'one' in the first place. None of the sources you cite seem to know the answer to the OPs question. Could you help me out? – Araucaria - Him Jun 21 '14 at 23:55

1 Answers1

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Of your example sentences, only the first one will be seen as correct by everyone.

NOT

Use it to negate a verb, as in these sentences:

I am working => I am not working.
That door is blue => That door is not blue.

In simple verb tenses you have to add the verb do as well:

I love watching movies => I do not love watching movies. I watched a movie last night. => I did not watch a movie last night.

You can use not to negate an adjective or an adverb. Usually this happens when we "leave out" a verb in some way:

How did it go? Not well. [It did not go well]
I would describe that idea as "not very smart". [The idea is not very smart.]

Not a can be used in some cases instead of no, but these are usually idiomatic expressions:

He has not a care in the world.

NO

The opposite to yes as an answer:

Do you like movies? No (, I do not).
Did you watch that movie? No (, I do not).

Use no to negate a noun. You can do this when in a positive sense you use an indefinite article only (or with mass nouns, and the article disappears in the negative:

Is there a problem? No, there's no problem! (the "a" disappears)
Do you have beer? I have no beer! (beer is a mass noun here)
Worries? I have no worries! (plural indefinite article is the zero-article)

NONE

None means not one, and it is the negation of the word one. So if you can use one in the affirmative sentence, you use none in the negation:

How many drinks did you have? I had none!
Did you see any lions? I saw none.

In some fixed phrases, none can be used on its own or as part of a word:

There he was: none other than the king himself! ("not another person than")
He was poor, but he was nonetheless happy. (but (because of that) not any less)

Your chair

Now we can talk about your chair, and we can say the following:

I do not have a chair. You thought I had a chair, but this is not true!
I don't have a chair. Everyone is sitting, but I cannot. Please give me a chair.
I have not a chair. (a bit archaic, formal) I would not use this with the chair.
I have no chair. You asked me to bring my won chair, but I cannot. I do not own one.
Chairs? I have none. Tables, I have many of. But chairs? No.

The cursive parts are just an indication of a situation in which you might use those sentences. There are of course hundreds of other situations in which you may want to say that you are somehow not in possession of a chair, but I hope that in most cases, you will now know which word to use.

oerkelens
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