Be Your Own Editor

Contributed by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta

Consider this sentence: “I don’t want no sympathy from you.”

Now, let’s assume that the person who said the above statement really doesn’t want any sympathy. But the sentence states that what the person doesn’t want is “no sympathy”—which means he or she wants sympathy. The sentence is obviously grammatically incorrect. If the person doesn’t want any sympathy, he/she should say either:

“I don’t want sympathy from you.”
OR
“I want no sympathy from you.”

The Subtle Double Negatives

Writers and speakers who always strive to write or speak correct English have few problems with double negatives. However, some words used in a negative sense are not recognized as negatives right away. They are sometimes combined with another negative to form a subtle double negative. Here is a list of these subtle negatives:

seldom
but (used to mean “only”)
just
merely
barely
hardly
except
only
scarcely
neither
ever
rarely
nothing
nowhere

And here are examples of the use of double negatives:

Bad grammar: “He can’t hardly wait for his present to arrive.”
Good grammar: “He can hardly wait for his present to arrive.”

Bad grammar: “They didn’t hardly have enough food left.”
Good grammar: “They hardly have enough food left.”

Bad grammar: “She isn’t but a homeless little girl.”
Good grammar: “She is but a homeless little girl.”

Bad grammar: “They seldom ever visit us.”
Good grammar: “They seldom visit us.”

Bad grammar: “Because of illness, he just merely weighs one hundred and ten pounds.”
Good grammar: “Because of his illness, he weighs merely one hundred and ten pounds.”

Writing Activity

Okay, now it’s your turn to transform sentences with double negatives into grammatically correct sentences:
1. You aren’t barely old enough to live on your own.
2. My father had to sell our car because he didn’t scarcely have enough money anymore.
3. I have so much to do that I haven’t ever got time to rest.
4. You aren’t but a minority.
5. The blanket didn’t barely protect their shivering bodies.
6. Her daughters seldom ever visit her at the hospital.

Shery is the author of the exciting new series of
ebooks, SEEDS: Ideas for the Everyday (Non-Fiction) Writer. Visit
www.seedsforwriters.com today or send a blank email to
mailto:writebeginnings@followingup.com.
Provided By: Writing and Speaking

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 at 6:06 am and is filed under Writing/Editing Tips: Nuts and Bolts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.