Double Negatives — Double Negatives: When Two Wrongs Make a Right
Grammar: Double negatives — standard, rhetorical, and non-standard uses
Free ESL grammar exercise on double negatives themed around double negatives: when two wrongs make a right. Printable worksheet from classplan.ai.
What's on this worksheet
A Level 6 (proficiency) ESL grammar exercise on education, practising double negatives — standard, rhetorical, and non-standard uses. The worksheet has a short reading excerpt, a grammar reference and graded practice items.
From the reading
In formal and literary registers, double negation can function as sophisticated understatement — not uncommon, not without merit, not entirely surprising — creating a tone of deliberate restraint rather than careless error.
Grammar: Double Negatives
- Rhetorical double
- Two negatives create formal understatement or hedging. The outcome was not entirely unexpected. This is correct and deliberate in formal writing.
- Near-negatives
- There was barely any time. ✓ — 'Barely' already implies near-negation. Adding a negative auxiliary creates a non-standard double negative.
Sample items
- She didn't say ______ to anyone at the meeting about the delay.
- The argument is ______ without its flaws, but overall it is convincing.
- Nobody told him ______ about the decision before it was announced.
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