The term negative verb or negative auxiliary refers to an auxiliary verb whose function is to negate the clause in which it occurs. Negative verbs are similar in function to English not and -n't, but unlike English not (which is not a verb) a negative verb inflects for agreement with the subject. This can be seen in the following two examples from Finnish. In the affirmative sentence (1) agreement appears on the main verb syödä 'eat'. In the negative sentence (2) agreement appears on the negative verb ei and the main verb appears in a non-finite form.