Double negative

For other uses, see Double Negative.

A double negative occurs when two forms of negation are used in the same clause. In some languages (or varieties of a language), negative forms are consistently used throughout the sentence to express a single negation. In other languages, a double negative is used to negate a negation, and therefore, it resolves to a positive. In the former case, triple and quadruple negation can also be seen, which leads to the terms multiple negation or negative concord.

In literature, denying a negation is known as the trope of litotes.

English

The double-negatives-make-a-positive rule was first introduced in English when Bishop Robert Lowth wrote A Short Introduction to English Grammar with Critical Notes in 1762.

Double negative resolving to a negative

Double negatives are generally not used in written varieties of Standard English. Consider the phrase, "I do not want nothing!" The intended meaning would be expressed as "I do not want anything!" in Standard English, according to prescriptive rules. However, if there is very heavy stress on "do not" or a specific plaintive stress on "nothing," Standard English can utilize the form "I do not want nothing" as a way of emphasizing that the speaker would rather have "something" than "nothing" at all.

Although they are not used in Standard English, double negatives are used in various dialects of English, including Southern American English, African American Vernacular English, and most British regional dialects, most notably the East London (Cockney) and East Anglian dialects. This is similar to negative concord found in other languages, as described later in this article. Often double negatives are considered incorrect grammatical usages; however, dialects which utilize double negatives do so consistently and follow a different set of descriptive linguistic rules.

In the film Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke uses a double negative when he says:

If you don't want to go nowhere

A double negative is also famously used in the first two lines of the song "Another Brick in the Wall (part II)" included in the album The Wall by Pink Floyd, sung by schoolchildren

We don't need no education

We don't need no thought control

or the "stinking badges" from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Badges? [pause] We ain't got no badges.

Previously acceptable use

Today, the double negative is often considered the mark of an uneducated speaker, but it used to be quite common in English, even in literature. Chaucer made extensive use of double negatives in his poetry, sometimes even using triple negatives. For example, he described the Friar in The Canterbury Tales: "Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous" (i.e., "There was not no man nowhere so virtuous"), and he even used a fourfold negative when describing the Knight: "He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In all his lyf unto no maner wight." (i.e., "He never yet no vileness not said / In all his life to no man.")

A classic example of a double negative used by a well-educated man in the 1600s was Oliver Cromwell's letter, dated July 5, 1644, to his brother-in-law, Valentine Walton, informing him of the death of Walton's son at the battle of Marston Moor, quoting the boy's last words:

A little after, he said one thing lay upon his spirit. I asked him what it was. He told me it was that God had not suffered him to be no more the executioner of His enemies.

This particular letter of Cromwell's has often been reprinted, but with the "not ... no" double negative amended to read "not ... any".

In more recent times, more publicised examples of double negatives appear in EastEnders, particularly with the character Dot Branning, who sometimes uses triple negatives as well (e.g. 'I ain't never heard of no licence). However, this is an obvious example of Estuary English or Mockney, as June Brown (who plays her) speaks with a much more posh accent.

Double negative resolving to a positive

In Standard English, double negatives are usually understood to resolve to a positive.

There isn't a day when I don't think about her. – Prince William, speaking of his mother.

(This is not double negative, since the two negatives are in different clauses. A true double negative would be "there isn't no day when..." The sentence as spoken could only be changed by removing one of the negatives to either "There isn't a day when I think about her" or "There is a day when I don't think about her" neither of which has the intended meaning.)

Litotes is a rhetorical device that uses double negation to emphasise a statement. Distinguishing litotes from simple double negative often requires context. For instance, "I do not disagree" could be said to mean, "I certainly agree" if stated in an affirmative manner; this is an example of litotes. However, if stated in a cautious manner, "I do not disagree" can also be used to mean, "You may be right, although I am not sure," or "There is no mistake in what you say, but there is more to it than that."

Similarly, the phrase "Mr. Jones was not incompetent" may be used to mean either "Mr. Jones was very competent" or "Mr. Jones was competent, but not brilliantly so."

Slavic languages

In many Slavic languages, including Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian, a double negative is grammatically correct, while a single negative is grammatically incorrect. The following are literal translations of grammatically correct Serbian sentences: Niko nikada nigde ništa nije uradio - Nobody never nowhere nothing did not do (nobody has ever done anything, anywhere); Nisam tamo nikad išla - I did not there never go (I have never been there). Bulgarian forms identical sentences: Никога никакви чувства не съм имала! - I have not never had no feelings (I have never had any feelings).

In Slovenian, double negation is the correct form and sometimes causes confusion as to whether the positive or the negative is meant by a given (ambiguous) sentence. The English sentence 'I do not know anyone' translates colloquially to Ne poznam nikogar (I do not know nobody). A literal translation of the English sentence, 'I do not know anyone' (Ne poznam kogarkoli) has the connotation 'I do not know just anyone' (that is, I know someone important or special). Peculiarly, the English 'Nobody knows one another' becomes 'Nihče ne pozna nikogar' (No one does not know no one) in Slovenian. In contrast, Church Slavonic language allows only single negation (however, many norms of Church Slavonic are artificial, as it is not a spoken language).

An example of commonly used triple negatives in Czech is Nikdo nic nevyhrál (Nobody won anything), which means Nobody did not win nothing when translated literally. In Russian, the following sentence with six negations is grammatically correct: Неужели никто нигде никогда не видел ничего подобного? ('Is it possible that no one has ever seen anything like that anywhere?'). Another example, from a popular song, is Ничего не слышу, ничего не вижу, ничего не знаю, ничего никому не скажу, meaning 'I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing, I will not tell anything to anybody'. In Polish, five negations occur in the sentence Czy to możliwe, że nikt nigdy nikogo nigdzie nie widział? ('Is it possible that no one has ever seen anything like that anywhere?'). The negative answer for this question has six negations: to niemożliwe, że nikt nigdzie nigdy nikogo nie widział.

The double negative is used in any case that pronouns are used with a negative construction, and is considered grammatically correct. Nie znam nikogo (literally I do not know nobody) means 'I do not know anybody; nic nie mam (literally I do not have nothing) means 'I have nothing'. This is quite a philosophical question, whether somebody can have nothing. In Polish, not nothing is everything or something is not nothing and not everything is expressed as coś to nic i wszystko. The double negation may be better understood as an answer to a negative question:

• no nie? is a short question about the fallibility of the preceding statement and could be answered:

• nie, no (the statement is false)
• no tak (the "no" is "true" )
• nie ino (conjugative falsification)
• tak ino (alternative opposition; only a specific part is doubted or alterable)
• tak i nie: ("yes and no"—some true, some false, if the answer is two alternatives).

i = "and", tak = yes, ino (tylko) = "only", i nie = "and not"

If it looks confusing, it is not so for a native speaker, and it is consistent with de Morgano logic. In fact, "nie ino and tak ino" are not used by native speakers of modern Polish — "ino" was replaced by "tylko". The English triple form of the words nay no not may have an IE origin.

Germanic languages

Double negation is not found in the standard West Germanic languages except for Afrikaans where it is mandatory. For example: Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie. (literally 'he cannot Afrikaans speak not'). Both French and San origins have been suggested for double negation in Afrikaans. While double negation is still found in Low Franconian dialects in West-Flanders and in some 'isolated' villages in the center of the Netherlands (i.e. Garderen), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans (i.e. ikne wil dat nie doen - I not will that not do). In Flemish, dialectical speech though there are still some widely used expressions like nooit niet (literally: 'never not': used instead of just nooit 'never'). The -ne was the Old Franconian way to negate, but it is suggested that since it became highly non-voiced 'nie' or 'niet' was needed to complement the -ne. With time, the -ne disappeared in most Low Franconian ("Dutch") dialects. Non-standard varieties of Germanic languages all use them. Here are German language examples:

Das macht kein Mensch nicht. (literally: "That does no man not.") Example of an archaic form that resolves to a negative but is no longer understood as: "No man does that."

Ich kenne nicht niemanden. (literally: "I know not nobody.") Modern usage, easily understood as: "It is not true that I do not know anybody."

And in English:

I ain't done nothing (literally: "I have not done anything")

The double negative construction has been fully grammaticalized in standard Afrikaans (due to its use in many indigenous languages in that area) and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below (provided by Bruce Donaldson) show:

Ek het nie geweet dat hy sou kom nie = Eng. I did not know that he would be coming.

Ek het geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie = Eng. I knew that he would not be coming.

Ek het nie geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie = Eng. I did not know that he would not be coming.

Hy sal nie kom nie, want hy is siek = Eng. He will not be coming because he is sick.

Dis (=Dit is) nie so moeilik om Afrikaans te leer nie = Eng. It is not so difficult to learn Afrikaans.

Romance languages

Double negatives are standard in Romance languages. Complex negation is generally expressed by placing a negation adverb (word for "not": ne in French, no in Spanish and Catalan, non in Italian, não in Portuguese, nu in Romanian) before the verb and zero or more negative adverbs or pronouns elsewhere to indicate what kind of negation is being made. In standard French, unlike the others, simple negation is commonly used with a second negative particle, pas. In Catalan, the second negative particle pas appears in emphatic contexts.

"I do not eat" in several Romance languages (negative words are bolded):

French: Je ne mange pas.

Catalan: No menjo or No menjo pas.

Veneto: No magno mìa/miga/mina or No magno nò (sometimes even No magno mìa nò)

Spanish: No como.

Portuguese: Não como.

Italian: Non mangio.

Romanian: Nu mănânc.

"I do not eat anything":

French: Je ne mange rien.

Catalan: No menjo res or No menjo pas res.

Veneto: No magno gnente or No magno mìa gente

Spanish: No como nada.

Portuguese: Não como nada.

Italian: Non mangio niente.

Romanian: Nu mănânc nimic.

Pas (from Latin passus), the word for "step", was originally used for emphasis, e.g., Fr. Je ne marche pas and Cat. No camino pas originally meant, "I will not go a step". The usage of the word later extended to serve as a negative particle, to the point that nowadays, in colloquial speech, ne is often left out, while pas serves as the only negating element. In Catalan, however, pas is used in some dialects to mark that a negative sentence contradicts what was expected, although in the Northern Catalan dialect pas is the only negative adverb while no is not used. Conversely, in standard Occitan, pas is the only particle used to negate sentences and non is only used as an answer to questions. Likewise, the double negation in Veneto varieties no...mìa can lose the first particle no and rely only on the second particle: magno mìa "I (do not) eat not", vegno mìa "I (do not) know not".

The correlative negative words in Spanish and Italian are used only in negative sentences (e.g. ningún "none", a positive sentence uses algún "some") whereas some French, Catalan and Occitan negative words are the same as positive words. This sometimes leads to confusion for non-native speakers. For example, in French personne can mean "person" or "nobody," plus can mean both "more" and "[not] anymore", and in Catalan res can mean both "nothing" and "anything", while enlloc can mean both "nowhere" or "anywhere". (However, in Catalan such positive uses are most frequently found on interrogative or conditional sentences and are rare in affirmative statements.)

This is compounded by the fact that colloquial French has a strong tendency to drop the particle ne, keeping only pas.

Since there are many Catalan negative particles which are in fact no plus an affirmative particle, there is a tendency to add no to particles which can't be affirmative in any context, for example Jo tampoc no l'he vista (literally "I neither not her have seen"; I have not see her either"). Those double negations are, however, correct, and in fact are encouraged by most teachers, despite the fact that some grammars consider both constructions as valid. The usage of this kind of double negation is decreasing, perhaps due to Spanish influence or perhaps due to the birth of a new natural tendency to drop particles similar to the one found in French.

In colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, an extra negative particle can often be found in apposition at the end of a double negative sentence. For example, Não vi nada, não translates literally to "I did not see nothing, no" (idiomatic translation: "Oh, no, I did not see anything"), or Não chamamos ninguém, não, literally "We did not call nobody, no" (idiomatic translation: "Oh, no, we did not call anybody"). The same phenomenon is also standard practice in Romanian, with the example Nu văd nimic. translating literally to "I do not see nothing." (idiomatic translation: "I do not see anything.")

Greek

Double negatives are perfectly correct in Ancient Greek and Modern Greek, sometimes expressing an affirmation, sometimes strengthening the negation. With few exceptions, a simple negative (οὐ or μή) following another simple or compound negative (e.g., οὐδείς, no one) results in an affirmation, whereas a compound negative following a simple or compound negative strengthens the negation.

• οὐδείς οὐκ ἔπασχε τι, no one was not suffering something, i.e., everyone was suffering.

• μὴ θορυβήσῃ μηδείς, let no one raise an uproar, lit. do not let no one raise an uproar.

The above applies only when the negatives all refer to the same word or expression in a clause, so in

οὐ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἀκοντίζειν οὐκ ἔβαλον αὐτόν, it was not on account of their not throwing that they did not hit him,

all of the negatives operate independently of each other.

In Modern Greek, there are two negations. The most common is the double negation:

• Κανείς δεν μίλησε, anyone did not talk

The single negation is rare and generally conservative:

• Ουδείς μίλησε, none talked

Hungarian

Double or multiple negative is grammatically required in Hungarian with negative pronouns, e.g. Nincs semmim (lit. "I do not have nothing", meaning I do not have anything), Soha nem iszom (lit. "I never do not drink", meaning I never drink), Ne mondd el senkinek (lit. "Do not tell no one about it", meaning Do not tell anyone about it), or a quintuple case: Soha sehol ne mondj el semmit senkinek, literally "Never nowhere do not tell no one about nothing", meaning Do not ever, anywhere tell anyone about anything.

Hebrew

Double or multiple negative are correct grammar in Hebrew:

• לא הלכתי לשום מקום > Not (I)went to no place > I did not go to nowhere > I did not go anywhere.
• אני לא מדבר עם אף אחד > I not (masc.)speak with no one > I do not speak with no one > I do not speak with anyone.
• אל תדבר על שום דבר עם אף אחד > not (you-masc.-sing.)will-talk about no thing with no one > Do not talk about nothing with no one > Do not talk about anything to anyone.

Sometimes it is possible to avoid double negatives by choosing words that are a not negative, but which convey a similar meaning. In the following example, "איש" ("man") functions much like French "personne": לא דיברתי עם איש > Not (I)spoke with man > I did not speak to a man > I did not speak to anyone.

The opposite view: The above assumes that the words שום and אף express negation. Checking in a dictionary as well as recalling expressions in which these words are not used as negations may show that actually in Hebrew there are no correct double negatives, at least not with the above examples.

The word שום means anything. The word אף means: also, too. Similar mistakes are made with additional words, not mentioned above. The word כלום means something, anything, a little of. The word מאומה means something.

To sum up: Words used with negations are often confused as being negations.

Japanese

One can indicate positive ("have to" statements) by emphasizing that not doing something will not do. For instance しなければならない (lit. not doing will not become) or しなければいけません (lit. not doing will not proceed). However, this may be a false double negative by English standards, as what comes before the second, negative word is one phrase. In a similar dubious manner, which is also not a true double negative, in order to be more indirect and therefore express politeness a sentence may be phrased using two negations. For example, 彼は日本語を勉強したから漢字が書けないわけがありません。 kare wa nihongo o benkyō shita kara kanji ga kakenai wake ga arimasen. (lit. "Because he has studied Japanese, an excuse for him to not be able to write kanji does not exist.", meaning "He has studied Japanese, so I expect that he can write kanji.").

See also

• Agreement (linguistics)
• Idiom
• Negation
• Negation (rhetoric)
• Pleonasm
• Redundancy (language)