Double Negative - English

English

In standard written English, when two negatives are used in one sentence, the negatives are understood to cancel one another and produce a weakened affirmative. However, in many dialects, the second negative is employed as an intensifier and should be understood as strengthening the negation rather than removing it.

Read more about this topic:  Double Negative

Famous quotes containing the word english:

    “Here tulips bloom as they are told;
    Unkempt about those hedges blows
    An English unofficial rose;”
    —Rupert Brooke (1887–1915)

    “Six hours for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool.”
    —18th-century English proverb.

    “My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.”
    —Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)