Negative words say no: no, not (and -n’t), never, nobody, nothing, none, nowhere, neither. A few hide their meaning: hardly, scarcely and barely are negatives too. Like good and well, these words follow a rule of standard writing: one negative per idea.
| Two negatives | Standard written English |
|---|---|
| I didn’t see nobody. | I didn’t see anybody. / I saw nobody. |
| We can’t hardly wait. | We can hardly wait. |
| She won’t never quit. | She will never quit. / She won’t ever quit. |
| They don’t have none. | They don’t have any. / They have none. |
Key idea
Why it works
This is a rule of standard writing, not of English everywhere. Older English stacked negatives for force: Chaucer wrote of his knight, “He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde” (General Prologue, The Canterbury Tales), meaning he never said anything rude. Grammar books of the 1700s argued that two negatives cancel each other, and the one-negative rule became the standard for writing. Many dialects of English still use double negatives in speech, following their own regular pattern.
Worked example: Choose the standard form
- Isn’t is already negative.
- So the second word should be the positive anything.
Answer: There isn’t anything in the box.
Worked example: A hidden negative
- Hardly means “almost not.” It is a negative.
- Use the positive can.
Answer: I can hardly hear you.
Common mistake