Double Negatives occur when two negatives are used in a sentence. These two negatives essentially cancel each other out, to make a positive. This changes the meaning of the sentence and this structure is not accepted in the English language.
- Ex: I hardly have nothing
- This is a double negative because both hardly and nothing have negative connotations. The two words thus cancel each other out to create a positive construction, suggesting that the author of this sentence has very little of nothing, which implies that they have a lot of everything.
- This sentence should say "I hardly have anything" which would preserve the negative construction. The sentence would make much more sense, as it would be clear that the author does not have very much.
The following words have negative constructions and should not be combined with each other.:
- Barely
- Hardly
- Neither
- No
- No one
- Nobody
- None
- Not
- Nothing
- Nowhere
- Scarcely
