{"id":4614,"date":"2011-07-13T00:13:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T00:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/?p=4614"},"modified":"2018-01-26T17:49:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T22:49:14","slug":"common-errors-in-english-double-negatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Errors in English: Double Negatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Don\u2019t say:<\/span> \u201cI didn\u2019t buy nothing at the store.\u201d<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">Say:<\/span> \u201cI didn\u2019t buy anything at the store.\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>In English, we can\u2019t have a <strong>\u201cdouble negative\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0(not + no) in the phrase. Use <strong>any-<\/strong> instead:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I don\u2019t know anyone at this party.<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">I don&#8217;t know no one at this party.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>We aren\u2019t doing anything at the moment.<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">We aren&#8217;t doing nothing at the moment.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>They didn\u2019t travel anywhere during their vacation.<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">They didn&#8217;t travel nowhere during their vacation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>You shouldn\u2019t buy any of those shoes \u2013 they\u2019re overpriced.<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">You shouldn&#8217;t buy none of those shoes &#8211; they&#8217;re overpriced.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The teacher hasn\u2019t given any homework so far this week.<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">The teacher hasn&#8217;t given no homework so far this week.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t worry, he won\u2019t tell anybody your secret.<br \/>\n<span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">Don&#8217;t worry, he won&#8217;t tell nobody your secret.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We also use <strong>any-<\/strong> in questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you know <strong>anyone<\/strong> at this party?<\/li>\n<li>Are you doing <strong>anything<\/strong> at the moment?<\/li>\n<li>Did they travel <strong>anywhere<\/strong> during their vacation?<\/li>\n<li>Should I buy <strong>any<\/strong> of these shoes?<\/li>\n<li>Has the teacher given <strong>any<\/strong> homework this week?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"alert\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Clear up your doubts about confusing words&#8230; and use English more confidently!<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-10529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\" alt=\"600+ Confusing English Words Explained\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-772x1024.png 772w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><center><a class=\"elementor-button rounded large blue\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.espressoenglish.net\/600-confusing-english-words-explained-e-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Click here to learn more about this e-book<\/strong><\/a><\/center><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don\u2019t say: \u201cI didn\u2019t buy nothing at the store.\u201d Say: \u201cI didn\u2019t buy anything at the store.\u201d In English, we can\u2019t have a \u201cdouble negative\u201d\u00a0(not + no) in the phrase. Use any- instead: I don\u2019t know anyone at this party. I don&#8217;t know no one at this party. We aren\u2019t doing anything at the moment. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,7],"tags":[142,143,86],"class_list":["post-4614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confusing-words-2","category-grammar","tag-common-errors-in-english","tag-double-negatives","tag-english-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Common Errors in English: Double Negatives - Espresso English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t say: \u201cI didn\u2019t buy nothing at the store.\u201d Say: \u201cI didn\u2019t buy anything at the store.\u201d In English, we can\u2019t have a \u201cdouble negative\u201d\u00a0(not + no) in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common Errors in English: Double Negatives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Don\u2019t say: \u201cI didn\u2019t buy nothing at the store.\u201d Say: \u201cI didn\u2019t buy anything at the store.\u201d In English, we can\u2019t have a \u201cdouble negative\u201d\u00a0(not + no) in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Espresso English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-13T00:13:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-26T22:49:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shayna Oliveira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shayna Oliveira\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#\/schema\/person\/b92f17848e26e2ccdb617df724d13300\"},\"headline\":\"Common Errors in English: Double Negatives\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-13T00:13:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-26T22:49:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/\"},\"wordCount\":219,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/600-confusing-words-226x300.png\",\"keywords\":[\"common errors in english\",\"double negatives\",\"english grammar\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Confusing Words\",\"Grammar\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.espressoenglish.net\/common-errors-in-english-double-negatives\/\",\"name\":\"Common Errors in English: Double Negatives - 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