Posts Tagged ‘double negative’

What is a double negative? What does it do?

Posted on: February 18th, 2011 by Deborah Plouffe 1 Comment

Question: What’s a double negative? What does it do?

Answer:  When you use two negatives in the same sentence, you end up saying the opposite of what you meant to say.

Here’s an example:

WRONG:   Barely no one noticed the error in the newsletter. (Meaning: Everyone noticed the error!)

RIGHT:   Barely anyone noticed the error in  the newsletter.  OR No one noticed the error in the newsletter.