A. There is not contaminated water.
B. There is no contaminated water.
C. There is not any contaminated water.
Would you please tell me if they are correct grammatically and if they would mean the same thing?
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Sign up to join this communityA. There is not contaminated water.
B. There is no contaminated water.
C. There is not any contaminated water.
Would you please tell me if they are correct grammatically and if they would mean the same thing?
A is wrong, but B and C are OK. B and C mean the same thing.
Not is an adverb and can modify a verb or other modifier. It cannot modify a non-proper noun (but can modify a proper noun or pronoun - e.g. "not him", "not them", "not James", etc.)
No is a determiner - it falls into the same category of words as this, that, these, those, a/an, the, etc. This means is that
If it's not the word right before the noun, use not (as C illustrates).
We can make a word, expression or clause negative by putting not before it.
I do not intend to resign.
Ask James, not his wife.
Not surprisingly, they got divorced within a couple of months.
No is used in a different way. It is used with a noun or an –ing form to mean ‘not any’.
No students joined the program. (= There weren’t any students who joined the program.)
No man is perfect. (= There aren’t any perfect men.)
She has got no children. (= She hasn’t got any children.)