"Seems to be not X" vs. "seems to not be X"

Which one of these two sentences is written correctly?

  1. This test data seems to be not good.
  2. This test data seems to not be good.

Better yet if you could explain as to why the correct form is correct. It would be greatly appreciated.


The most natural is:

This test data doesn't seem to be good.

The following two, although not incorrect per se, are less common:

This test data seems to be not good.

This test data seems not to be good.

And the last one sounds rather unnatural:

This test data seems to not be good.

Ngrams confirms it: enter image description here

I am afraid I can't explain the why part, so I'll leave it to other answers :)


If it fits the context, I recommend:

The test data seems [to be] no good.

According to Google Ngram Viewer, no good is more common than not good.

enter image description here

And when we add seems to be or seems (NGram), no is much more common.

Google NGram viewer comparison of "seems not to be good", "seems to be not good", "does not seem to be good", "seems to be not good", "seems no good" and "seems not good" for the period 1750--2008.  "seems no good" and "seems to be no good" are by far the most common

However, only use no good if the data is of such poor quality that you can't use it. no good has a stronger meaning than not good.