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Contributor: Elephango Editors. Lesson ID: 12624
You don't not want to miss this lesson! You can't never guess how much you'll learn! What am I trying to say? Like a battery can't have two negatives, neither can a sentence if you want to make sense!
For example, they are widespread in Spanish.
If someone asked you, "What's in the box?" you could answer, "¡No hay nada!" which means "There is not nothing!"
You could even say, "He didn't say nothing to nobody!" in Spanish, which is ¡No le dijo nada a nadie!.
But in English, that's a big NO-NO!
Read on to find out why.
In English, you can use double negatives when talking to a friend and still be understood, but you should not use them in your writing assignments!
As you probably already know or have guessed, a double negative happens when you use two negative words in the same sentence.
In proper English, using two negatives in a sentence is understood as canceling them out and making it a positive statement.
Incorrect Example: I can't see nothing.
If you can not see nothing, then you can see something.
Correct: I can't see anything.
Incorrect Example: I don't know nothing.
If you do not know nothing, then you do know something.
Correct: I don't know anything.
Incorrect Example: I don't have no time for English lessons.
If you do not have no time, then you must have some time.
Correct: I don't have time for English lessons.
Some common negative words are listed below.
| no | not | none | |
| never | nobody | nothing | |
| hardly | barely | scarcely |
Contractions with the word not are also negative words.
| isn't | haven't | couldn't | |
| can't | won't |
As you watch the following video, write two examples of double negative sentences. Then, write the sentences the correct way.
Avoiding double negatives in your sentences is another way to improve sentence fluency. It makes your writing easier to read and to understand!
Continue to the Got It? section to practice correcting double negatives in sentences.
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