Double Negatives

Article excerpt · target grammar marked

In standard written English, two negative words in one clause cancel each other out and produce a positive meaning. If you say I don't know nothing, the grammar rule says you are claiming you do know something.

Grammar Reference · Double Negatives

Standard rule

In formal written English, one negative per clause is required. She doesn't know anything. Use any/anyone/anything after a negative verb.

Double negative

Two negatives in one clause produce a logical positive in standard English. She doesn't know nothing. ✗ — formally means she does know something.

Rhetorical double

In formal writing, a double negative can signal deliberate understatement. This plan is not without risk. ✓ — softer than 'this plan is risky'.

Common error

Never use no/nobody/nothing/nowhere after a negative auxiliary. There isn't no solution. ✗ → There isn't any solution. ✓

01Exercise 1 — Form · Write the Correct Form

Double Negatives

1.She heard anything about the new school policy on dialect correction.

2.There any research suggesting that African American Vernacular English is logically inferior.

3.The decision to change the curriculum was without controversy among the teaching staff.

4.Nobody that Chaucer used double negatives in his poetry.

5.The linguist find any evidence that dialect speakers were confused by double negatives.

6.This argument is entirely without merit, which is why it deserves serious consideration.

02Exercise 2 — Find and Correct the Error

find the error · rewrite the sentence

1.Chaucer didn't write nothing that modern linguists consider incorrect.

2.There wasn't nobody at the lecture who disagreed with Robin Lakoff's observation.

3.The school couldn't find no reason to change its grammar correction policy.

4.He hasn't never used a double negative deliberately in formal writing.

5.The policy isn't without no problems, which the report makes clear.

6.Nobody didn't understand the difference between standard and dialect forms.

03Exercise 3 — About You

in your notebook

Personalise: complete five sentences about yourself using the target grammar.

Double Negatives01classplan.ai