There are so many differences between Chinese and English negative sentence expression in aspects of words, grammar, sentence style etc. In forms of English negative sentences are various. Negative sentence styles include completely negative（完全否定）, partially negative（部分否定）, meaning negative（意义否定）, double-negative（双重否定） and nearly negative（几乎否定）.

Therefore, we should pay more attention to this kind of sentences, especially during science and technology translation.

1. Partially negative

There is a feature for this kind of sentence – partially negative, partially positive in one sentence. The negative word “not” is used with following words: all, always, some, both, every, many, much, well, often etc. They are generally translated into“并非所有”、“并非每个”、“未必都”、“不全是”、“不都是”、“不总是”、“不是都”、“并未都”、“不多”、“不常”etc.

For example

a. All metals do not conduct electricity equally well.

并非所有金属的导电性能都同样好。

b. Not many of the couples are harmonious at the beginning of his marriage.

不是所有夫妻在结婚初期都和和睦睦的。

2. Completely negative

In these sentences, there often are such words: not, no, none, never, neither…nor…, nothing, nobody, etc.

For example

a. Neither refractory materials nor magnetic materials can be used to make the part.

耐火材料和磁性材料都不适合生产这类零件。

b. In past five year, he has never visited his parents.

在过去五年里，他从未看望过自己的父母。

3. Meaning negative

Some English sentences seem to be positive from their forms. However, some words with negative meanings exist in them. We should make use of appropriate ways to express their negative meanings.

For example

a. One wonders also why Nature with some snakes concocted poison of such extreme potency.

人们也不明白，为什么大自然在某些蛇身上配制如此剧烈的毒液。

b. The performance of the machine is short of business requirements.

本机器的性能没有达到业务要求。

c. The size of the part is too big for proper assembly.

零件尺寸太大，不宜装配。(too…for…; too…to…)

Read Also: Schinders Law Multilingual Translation Case Study

4. Double-negative

In fact, double-negative sentence is affirmative sentence, but the mood of the first one is stronger than that of the second one. Generally speaking, this kind of sentence consists of words “not, no, never, neither, nobody, nothing, etc” and other negative words. They can be translated into double-negative sentences or affirmative sentences.

For example

a. Without the laws of motion as a basis, thousands of discoveries and inventions would have been out of the question.

没有运动定律作为基础，就不可能有成千上万的发现和发明。

b. Dynamics is a discipline that can’t be mastered without lots of practice.

动力学是一门要做大量联系才能掌握的学科。

5. Other sentences

In some sentences, there are this kind of words, such as barely, nearly, hardly, few, little, seldom, almost no, rarely, etc. They can be translated into “极少、几乎没（不）、很少…”

For example

a. Little information is given as to his life experience.

关于他身世的资料很少。

b. To our surprise, Tom had almost no tear when he knew that his mother had passed away.

令我们奇怪的是，汤姆得知母亲去世的消息时几乎没有掉眼泪。

The above is my conclusion about negative sentences translation. I really hope it can help you. If you have translation requirement or question, please contact our company CCJK. I am Hana, also welcome send me email [email protected]. We are waiting for you, dear friend.