Double Negatives
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Basics on the topic Double Negatives
What Are Double Negatives?
Do you want to know more about double negatives in English? Learn everything about double negatives, how to spot them and how to fix them through our video and activities!
Double Negatives – Definition
A negative statement is one that includes negative words like not, no, no one or nothing. It tells us that something isn’t the case.
A double negative statement includes two negative words.
Double negation sentences are problematic because the two negative words cancel each other out. They turn the statement into a positive one – just the opposite of what it was supposed to be!
Avoiding double negatives is important because double negation in grammar is confusing. Double negatives make the meaning of your statement unclear.
Double Negatives – Examples
Here are some examples of double negatives in English. The negative words are in italics.
- I don’t have no gum.
- She never saw no one.
- Koko didn’t go nowhere.
- Pip can’t do nothing about the weather.
- Nobody’s saying nothing.
- We didn’t go there neither.
Historic and Literary Origins of Double Negatives
A long time ago, people spoke English differently, and using double negatives was more common. Over time, the English language changed, and it was considered incorrect to use double negatives. However, double negatives are still sometimes used in informal English.
Double negatives appear in some literary works, such as Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, for example, in the quote “That's all, old chap, and don't never do it no more.” In this case, a double negative is used to make the character sound more real and authentic.
Avoiding Double Negatives
Now that we’ve looked at some examples of double negatives, let’s look at ways of avoiding double negatives. You can do this by taking out negative words and/or using positive words like any, anywhere, anyone or anything.
We’ll look at the examples from above to see how we can do this.
| Double Negative Sentence | Correct Negative Sentence | Alternative Correct Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| I don’t have no gum. | I don’t have any gum. | I have no gum. |
| She never saw no one. | She never saw anyone. | She saw no one. |
| Koko didn’t go nowhere. | Koko didn’t go anywhere. | Koko went nowhere. |
| Pip can’t do nothing about the weather. | Pip can’t do anything about the weather. | Pip can do nothing about the weather. |
| Nobody’s saying nothing. | Nobody’s saying anything. | |
| We didn’t go there neither. | We didn’t go there either. |
Using Positive Words Instead of Negative Words
Here are some examples of negative words and the positive words you can use instead.
| Negative Word | Positive Word |
|---|---|
| no one | anyone, everyone |
| nowhere | anywhere, everywhere |
| nothing | anything, everything |
| none | all; any |
| neither | either |
| nobody | somebody, everybody |
Now you know what double negatives in English are and some ways of avoiding double negatives. These points will help you communicate more clearly!
Double Negatives – Summary
Double negatives in English are when we use two negative words, like not, no, or none in a sentence. When we do that, it actually means the opposite of what we want to say! It can be confusing. For example, if we say, "She doesn't like no dogs," it really means "She likes dogs”! To make it clear, we can use positive words like any, anywhere or anything. For example, instead of saying, "She doesn't like no dogs," we can say, "She doesn’t like any dogs” or just “She doesn’t like dogs.” That way, people can better understand our meaning. You can find interactive exercises and downloadable worksheets to help you learn to identify and correct double negatives right after watching the video.
Transcript Double Negatives
"Today looks beautiful! There isn’t going to be no rain! So get out there and enjoy!" Uh-oh! Pip appears to be sending mixed messages about the weather! If he wants to make sure he's communicating properly, Pip needs to learn about double negatives. Double negatives are sentences that contain two negative words in one thought. Negative nouns are words such as no one, nobody, nothing and nowhere. Negative verbs include does not, was not, can’t, isn’t, and shouldn’t. Negative adverbs include words like no, not, never, and rarely. When two negative words are combined in a sentence, they cancel each other out and lead to a weakened positive statement. As a result, the sentence is grammatically incorrect and difficult to understand. Double negatives make your meaning unclear because they send the opposite message than you intended. For example, "I don't want nothing." actually means you want something. Look at the statement made by Pip. He said, "There isn’t going to be no rain," while trying to convey that the weather will be sunny. The words "isn't" and "no" contradict each other therefore forming a positive statement. If there isn't going to be no rain happening, we're actually saying that it is going to rain. There are a couple of ways to correct double negatives. First, we could change the second negative word to a positive word. Positive words include: any, anything, always, some, something, and ever. There isn't going to be no rain would become "there isn't going to be any rain". Or, we can remove a negative word, like 'no' and the sentence will say, 'there isn't going to be rain.' Let's practise with some examples. Which sentences are written correctly? The correct sentences are "I have no homework to do," and "I don't have any homework to do." These statements only have one negative, so they communicate that there isn't homework. In the sentence, "I don't have no homework to do," there is a "don't" and a "no". This communicates that you actually have homework to do. Which of these sentences are written correctly? The correct sentences are "We saw nobody at the movies," and "We didn't see anybody at the movies." Sometimes, we have to change the tense of a word when correcting double negatives in sentences, like see to saw. While Pip finishes up the weather report, let's review. Remember, when two negative words are combined in a sentence, they cancel each other out and lead to a weakened positive statement. As a result, the sentence is grammatically incorrect and difficult to understand. We should avoid using double negatives in our sentences in order to communicate clearly with others. "I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain today."
