Hello, everyone! Welcome back to my channel, Sparkle English, where I help you improve
your level of English. In today's lesson, we're going to talk about double negatives
in English. Are they correct? And if not, how can we correct them? At the end of this lesson,
there will be a short quiz. So first of all, what are double negatives? Double negatives occur
when two forms of negation are used in the same sentence. In standard English, double negatives
are considered grammatically incorrect. In English, if you use a double negative,
it creates sentences with a meaning opposite to what is intended. For example, in Spanish,
you can use double negatives. It's grammatically correct, and people use double negatives all the
time. But in English, it's incorrect. For example, I don't need no help. In English,
this means I do need help. I don't need no help. I need some help. But I want to say I don't need
any help. We have two negatives in this sentence: don't and no. And in English, they cancel each
other out. Another example: she hasn't seen nobody today. Again, in English, this creates a sentence
with the opposite meaning. If you say I haven't seen nobody, it means you have seen somebody. And
this can cause confusion in English. So let's talk a little more about how double negatives can cause
confusion. So as I said before, double negatives can change the intended meaning of a sentence to
the opposite. And instead of conveying a negative meaning, you'll convey a positive meaning. So
for example, she won't eat no vegetables. This sentence written like this actually means that
she will eat vegetables. My grandpa doesn't trust nobody actually means my grandpa trusts somebody.
So we need to fix these so our intended meaning is clear. And how do we do this? Well, first, you
need to know how to identify a double negative. And double negatives appear when negatives are
used together unnecessarily. So let's look at this chart. And here are some examples of common double
negatives. There can be negative adverbs, such as not or never; negative pronouns, such as nobody,
no one, nothing; negative determiners, no, none, neither used with nor; and we may also have
negative auxiliary verbs, such as doesn't, don't, isn't, aren't, wasn't, or weren't, etc. So you
must be careful to make sure the negatives used in your sentence do not cancel each other out. So
for example, nobody didn't finish the assignment. Here, we have nobody, which is a negative pronoun
and didn't. These cancel each other out. Another example, I can't find no pencils in the drawer.
We have can't and no. And those cancel each other out. Jane never said nothing about her
date. You see, we have two negatives: never and nothing. So once you identify these negatives,
now we can work on correcting them. So, your intended meaning with this sentence is clear.
So how can we correct these double negatives? To correct a double negative, you can remove
one of the negative elements, or sometimes you can replace it with a positive one. So here are some
examples of positive replacements: ever, always, somebody, someone, something, any, anything,
anybody, either/or, does, do, is, are, was, were, etc. So these are some examples of words you can
use to replace these negative words. And sometimes you don't even need to use these. You just need
to remove one of the negative elements. So let's try to correct these three sentences. Now before
we continue, if you're enjoying this lesson, I encourage you to subscribe to my channel. It
really helps me out, and so you can continue improving your English grammar and writing
skills. Let's start with the first one. Instead of saying nobody didn't finish the assignment,
you can say nobody finished the assignment. So we're replacing didn't finish with finished. And
now our meaning is clear. Now, with all of these, there are multiple ways you can correct the double
negative. With the second example, "I can't find no pencils in the drawer" can be changed
to "I can't find any pencils in the drawer." Or you could just say "I can't find pencils in the
drawer" without any. Both would be correct. In the third example, "Jane never said nothing about her
date," you could remove never. Jane said nothing about her date, or Jane never said anything about
her date. Both of those would be correct. Are double negatives always incorrect? Well,
let's talk about some mistakes and exceptions with double negatives. So some dialects and informal
English use double negatives for emphasis. There are some English-speaking regions where
it is common to use double negatives, and it's not considered incorrect. However, if you are
writing a formal essay, an article, or a business email, it is best to avoid using double negatives
because it is not accepted in standard grammar. So it's really important for you to differentiate
between intentional use of double negatives versus an actual mistake. Double negatives in literature
and music lyrics can be stylistic choices, and these are not considered errors. Let's look at
some song examples. "I can't get no satisfaction." These are some lyrics by The Rolling Stones. Well,
this is a double negative. We have can't and no. However, if these lyrics were changed to
"I can't get any satisfaction," it doesn't have the same ring to it. It doesn't sound as good.
So these lyrics are intentional because it sounds better. It's a stylistic choice. Another example,
which is my favorite song ever, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye. Here
we have a double negative, ain't, and no. Ain't is slang for isn't or aren't. But if this song
was changed to "There isn't any mountain high enough," that would not sound nearly as good.
"Ain't no mountain high enough" sounds catchy. It sounds great. So this is an intentional choice,
and it's not an error. So now it's time for our quiz. There are eight sentences in total. You must
identify the double negatives and correct any double negatives that must be corrected. Let's
begin. Number one, the heartbroken woman couldn't find no reason to stay with him. Number two,
I didn't have no time to play with my video games this weekend. Number three, the teenagers never
do nothing during vacations. Number four, my uncle rarely eats any junk food. Number five,
the movie was neither entertaining nor original. Number six, you haven't seen nothing yet. Number
seven. "Ain't no sunshine" is one of my favorite songs. And finally, number eight. Just because
I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't have an opinion Okay, let's correct these together. Number one
is incorrect. It is a double negative. We need to change no to any. The heartbroken woman couldn't
find any reason to stay with him. Number two is also a double negative. I didn't have no time to
play with my video games. So we need to change no to any or just remove it. I didn't have time to
play with my video games. Now number three is also a double negative. So we need to change nothing
to anything. The teenagers never do anything during vacations, or you could remove never.
The teenagers do nothing during vacations. What about number four? My uncle rarely eats any junk
food. So number four is correct. This is not a double negative. We're saying that my uncle
almost never eats any junk food. Now what about number five, and this one might be confusing. We
have neither and nor; however, this sentence is correct as it is because neither and nor are used
together to show that both parts of this statement are negative. The movie was not entertaining,
and it was not original. The construction "neither and nor" is a negative correlative conjunction.
And these words are typically used together. Now what about number six: you haven't seen nothing
yet. This is a double negative, so we're going to correct it. Now again, remember that sometimes
people use double negatives intentionally for emphasis. I have heard people say "you
haven't seen nothing yet." And they're saying that to emphasize nothing. But grammatically,
it should be changed to anything. You haven't seen anything yet. Now, number seven. Number seven is
correct as it is, and that's because we do have a double negative: Ain't no sunshine. This is a
double negative. However, this is a title of a very popular song, and this is intentional. Now,
the last one is my most difficult one. Is this sentence correct? Yes, this sentence is correct
as it is. So this sentence does contain two negatives, but they are not used together to
negate one thing. The negatives are used in different parts of the sentence. Let's read
the sentence again. Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I don't have an opinion. What this person is
trying to say in this sentence, is that, yes, I am quiet. But I do have an opinion. Don't assume
I don't have an opinion because I'm quiet. So they are intentionally using two negative words,
but doesn't and don't are used in different parts of the sentence. They're not working together to
talk about one thing. I'm saying that I am quiet, but I still have an opinion. Don't assume that
I don't. I hope that makes sense to you. It was my tricky question. If you want further
clarification, feel free to ask me in the comments section of this video. Let me know in the comments
section how many you got correct out of eight. Thank you once again for watching, and make sure
to subscribe to Sparkle English for more English lessons on how to improve your writing skills,
your grammar skills, your spelling skills, and much more. I'll see you all in my next lesson!