What Is a Double Negative?

In the real world, purging negativity is an important skill for a happy life. In the grammar world, purging double negativity is crucial for clear and concise writing. Double negatives are redundant thoughts made of multiple negative words; these result in complicated and confusing sentences. However, they aren’t not useful. Every once in a while, an appropriately used double negative can improve your writing, but those occasions are rare.

A double negative is any statement with two negative words. A person might say, for example, “I didn’t see nobody.” The two negatives are “did not” and “nobody.” The problem is that double negatives muddle the intentions, resulting in the opposite meaning. “I didn’t see anybody” would be clearer. Think back to math class — multiplying two negative numbers together cancels out the negative and turns it into a positive. It’s the same with words. Two negatives cancel each other out and turn the statement into a positive. Combining “didn’t” and “nobody” flips the meaning to imply the speaker did see somebody, which wasn’t the goal of the statement.

Common words in double negatives include negative determiners (“no” and “none of”), negative pronouns (“neither,” “no one”), negative adverbs (“not,” “never”), and negative verbs, which are created by adding “not” or making it a contraction (“wouldn’t,” “don’t”). The good news is, a double negative is usually easy to fix by removing one negative word. For example, “I cannot go nowhere tonight” can be fixed by removing “nowhere” to get “I cannot go tonight.”

There are rare instances where double negatives can add flair to your writing, however. If you’re hoping to emphasize a point, you might say, “I can’t not go to this party” for added oomph and drama. Or just ask the Rolling Stones, who famously sang, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” In these cases, the double negatives are used for rhetorical effect. But otherwise, they should be avoided.

Featured image credit: Thx4Stock/ iStock

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Bennett Kleinman

Staff Writer

Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.