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Dear fellow Ielts exam takers,

A question about a word: 'negative".

I recently read an article written by a native speaker. the word "negative" is used as a noun and it holds a similar meaning as "drawback".

Can I use it in Ielts Essay? Like: "this stuff has its negatives".

I feel it can be used as a alternative for "drawback" and it's more concise than "negative impact".

Hi Allen,

I am bit surprised because this word ' negative' has been used very often in many essays...even Ryan used in his essays very often.

and of course, you could use to show some drawbacks.

disadvantages- drawbacks- demerits- deleterious- detrimental- negative- all these can exchanged with some appropriate structures.

pros and cons ( I think you cannot use them separately)


You can check meaning and its usage


Durai

Hi allen_zhang,

I believe it is possible to use negative as a noun.

Based on the dictionary.com, negative can be both noun and adjective:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/negatives?s=t

And there are some good examples in using negative as a noun from the link below:

http://sentence.yourdictionary.com/NEGATIVE

Having watched him week in, week out I know that the positives outweigh the negatives.

As mean, advantages outweigh drawbacks.

They also produce some ' false negatives ' with supposed antidepressant drugs ' .

As mean, "false statements".

Hope this will answer your question.

Regards,

Cindy.