What is a double negative?
A double negative is a sentence that contains two negatives (with a negative being a ‘not’ or a ‘no’ word). So the sentence, ‘I am not going to no party’ is a double negative and is an unfortunate use of language, since a double negative effectively cancels out the negative meaning of a sentence and gives it a positive meaning. So to say, ‘I am not going to no party’ actually means, ‘I am going to a party.’
In written English the use of a double negative is very much regarded as a mistake and can lead to a great deal of confusion. In spoken English it can also lead to confusion, but often the double negative is used deliberately, particularly within the rap scene, where it will retain its negative meaning!
Thus the double negative can be extremely confusing for anyone learning the language and great care should be taken by anyone writing or speaking English, to avoid its use. It is also of critical importance to avoid the usage of double negatives when writing business English. In order to check that your writing does not contain any double negatives, it is a really good idea to carefully proofread your work and check that all the sentences are either positive (without any ‘no’ words) or, if they do contain ‘no’ words, that they contain only one ‘no’ or negative word. As a rule, it is also best to check using some kind of online grammar check, so that you really can be sure that your meaning is clear.
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