![]() | LEO: Literacy Education Online Double Negatives |
A double negative is the nonstandard usage of two negatives used in the same sentence so that they cancel each other and create a positive. In Shakespeare's day, double negatives were considered emphatic, but today, they are considered grammar mistakes.
Remembering that two negatives form a positive will help you to avoid the "double negative" grammar problem:
Negative + Positive = Negative |
Negative Words
The following list contains words that are regarded as negative. If you use them in your sentences once, your statements will be negative.
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Using the rule explained above in the box and the list of negative words given, study the following examples:
Positive Construction | I hardly have none. | I have some. |
I don't want nothing. | I want something. | |
Negative Construction | I hardly have any. | I have few. |
I don't want anything. | I want nothing. |
Note: the usage of double negatives is not considered proper or standard in English. On some occasions, mostly when speaking, the use of double negatives is accepted; however, you must remember that the meaning of these expressions will always be positive.
Exercise
On a sheet of paper, rewrite these sentences so that none of them contains double negatives.
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The print handout was revised and then redesigned for the Web by Maggie Escalas for the Write Place, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, and may be copied for educational purposes only. If you copy this document, please include our copyright notice and the name of the writer; if you revise it, please add your name to the list of writers.
Last Update: 5 October 1999
URL: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/doubneg.html