{"id":999,"date":"2015-08-15T06:57:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T06:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writing-geeks.com\/?p=999"},"modified":"2015-08-15T06:57:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T06:57:24","slug":"double-negatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/double-negatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Negatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Double Negatives
\n<\/span><\/h2>\n
What is a Double Negative?
\n<\/span><\/h5>\n

A negative statement containing two negative elements is known as a Double Negative. A double negative is usually produced by combining the negative form of verb (e.g., cannot<\/i>, did not<\/i>, have not<\/i>) with a negative pronoun (e.g., nothing<\/i>, nobody<\/i>), a negative adverb (e.g., never<\/i>, hardly<\/i>) or a negative conjunction (e.g., neither\/nor<\/i>).<\/p>\n

Example :<\/p>\n

    \n
  • I didn’t see nothing.<\/li>\n
  • It wasn’t uninteresting.<\/li>\n
  • She is not unattractive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    A double negative gives the sentence a positive sense<\/strong>. For example:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • “He didn’t see nothing.” \u00a0\u00a0=<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 “He saw something.”<\/li>\n
    • “She claims she has not seen neither Paul nor John.” \u00a0\u00a0=<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 “She claims she has seen either Paul or John.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Often, the positive sense is not what the speaker is trying to say, but a double negative is not always an error. Look at this example:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • “She is not unattractive.” \u00a0\u00a0=<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 “She is attractive.”
        \n(Of course, not unattractive<\/i> could also mean average looking<\/i>. It depends on context.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        Double Negatives to Avoid<\/span><\/h5>\n

        Never use not<\/strong> in the same sentence as the following:<\/p>\n

        hardly<\/strong>
        \nscarcely<\/strong>
        \nonly (in some contexts; does not apply to \u201cnot only\u2026but also\u201d)<\/strong>
        \nneither<\/strong>
        \nnever<\/strong>
        \nno one<\/strong>
        \nnobody<\/strong>
        \nnothing<\/strong>
        \nno<\/strong>
        \nnone
        \n<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Here are some examples of sentences that rarely cause confusion and are incorrect in standard English:<\/p>\n

        *She was so weak she couldn\u2019t hardly sit up.
        \n*Scarcely nobody came to my party.
        \n*I can\u2019t stay only a few minutes.
        \n*I didn\u2019t know neither her telephone number nor her address.
        \n*I never saw no one I thought prettier.
        \n*I don\u2019t know nothing about building a compost pile.
        \n*We don\u2019t need no education
        \n*I don\u2019t want none of those escargots.<\/p>\n

        Correct Sentences<\/strong><\/p>\n

        *She was so weak she could hardly sit up.
        \n*Scarcely anybody came to my party.
        \n*I can stay only a few minutes.
        \n*I knew neither her telephone number nor her address.
        \n*I never saw anyone I thought prettier.
        \n*I don\u2019t know anything about building a compost pile.
        \n*We don\u2019t need an education
        \n*I don\u2019t want any of those escargots.<\/p>\n

        What about a Triple Negative?<\/span><\/h5>\n

        You do not see triple negatives often, but here is a witty one:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • I cannot say that I do not disagree with you.
          \n(This quote by Groucho Marx is a triple negative. If you follow it through logically, you’ll find it means I disagree with you<\/i>. )<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

           <\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Double Negatives What is a Double Negative? A negative statement containing two negative elements is known as a Double Negative. A double negative is usually produced by combining the negative form of verb (e.g., cannot, did not, have not) with a negative pronoun (e.g., nothing, nobody), a negative adverb (e.g., never, hardly) or a negative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-english"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/double-negatives.jpg?fit=800%2C521&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Writing Geeks","author_link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/author\/writinggeeks\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/double-negatives.jpg?fit=800%2C521&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uhmH-g7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions\/1002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}