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I have a problem with these sentences. They have two verbs and the second verb is negative.

Where should not go?

  • try to not waste food
  • try not to waste food

and

  • try to not take it personally
  • try not to take it personally
JMP
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Nasrin
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  • (1) those are not sentences. (2) the not is not part of the verb, so verbs aren't "negative". (3) when there are two verbs in a sentence and no conjunction between them, one can be a complement of the other. In this case, the infinitive to waste food is the complement of try (one assumes they have the same subject when they appear in a sentence). (4) not can occur either before or after the to that marks the infinitive, so both of those strings are correct. Either could be an English imperative. – John Lawler Nov 25 '20 at 17:05
  • so the rule is: if the subject for two verbs is the same then "not" can occur either before or after the "to". right? – Nasrin Nov 25 '20 at 19:12
  • No, wrong. That's not the rule, and that's not what I said. If you want to make up your own rules, go elsewhere. – John Lawler Nov 25 '20 at 20:27
  • @JohnLawler you can simply say no it is wrong instead of insulting me. if you can not be patient with people who is the beginning of learning don't answer them – Nasrin Nov 25 '20 at 20:52

1 Answers1

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Both are correct, but there is a slight difference in tone depending on where "not" is placed. "Try to not waste food" gives a sense of talking about a continuous effort, while "Try not to waste food" has more of a sense of talking about not wasting food as an overall whole.

Logically, "not" should be next to the verb that it modifies. However, there is an aversion among some people to splitting infinitives that likely has contributed to the prevalence of "not" preceding "to". Besides split infinitives being an issue invented by prescriptivists, the word "to" arguably is not part of the infinitive, but a preposition; Google Translate gives the translation of "Try not to waste food" to Spanish as "Trata de no desperdiciar comida", not "Trata no desperdiciar comida".

Acccumulation
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