Subj : Have not or didn't have
To   : Anton Shepelev
From : alexander koryagin
Date : Fri Sep 22 2017 19:06:07

Hi, Anton Shepelev!
I read your message from  22.09.2017 00:30
about Have not or didn't have.

 AK>> I read in a novel by Judith Wright: Driving away, John Condon was
 AK>> the minor business-man again. He had not much time to get to town
 AK>> for that appointment.

 AK>> I heard that if you had a real thing you say "I had NO/NOT it",
 AK>> but if it was not a real thing you should say "I didn't have it".
 AK>> But "time" is not a real thing? ;-) Is there a more accurate rule?

 AS> In classic literary English "not" negates the verb it follows. You
 AS> shall find plentiful examples in such disparate writers as Lewis
 AS> Carrol, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Emily Bronte.

I asked where is preferable to use "I have not" instead of "I don't have" and 
vice versa. Both terms mean denying of possession.

 AS> The rule you quoted is superficial and purely mnenomic, for it
 AS> provides neither deep insight into the "make" of the language nor
 AS> any kind of rationale. Shun such rules like the plague and study
 AS> the language instead of drilling ill-devised pseudo-rules, whose
 AS> only value is in helping poor IELTS and TOEFL students pass the
 AS> tests.

 AS> To get a feeling of what true study grammar looks like, try reading
 AS> some Folwer or Goold Brown:

 AS> http://www.bartleby.com/116/213.html
 AS> http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11615/pg11615-images.html

It is too late to eat in such large portions. I prefer to nibble it.  ;-)

 AS> I should with pleasure recommend more contemporary works, but I
 AS> know none that show the same level of coherence and discipline as
 AS> these old books do.

I often ask just to talk. Google has killed good companies. Google knows all, 
and I don't like it. There was time when people preferred live conversations 
instead of asking robots or getting URLs.

Bye, Anton!
Alexander Koryagin
ENGLISH_TUTOR 2017

--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox
 * Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)

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