Double Negatives: Why You’re Not Supposed To Use Them
by Brilliant in How to write English 0
While it isn’t the same case in some languages, double (or more) negatives aren’t all that encouraged within the English language. The reasoning is straightforward: double negatives negate each other, so why not simply use the positive counterpart? Doing so will lead to shorter, extra concise and less complicated sentences.
Double negatives haven’t at all times been derided in English. In fact, read lots of the old classics up to the 18th century and you’ll find a long tradition of double negatives employed by the distinguished wordsmiths of their time. Some double negatives also stay in acceptable use (e.g. “ain’t seen nothin’ but”), though there are few of them that editors will fortunately tolerate.
Within the recent past, double negatives have leaned towards being too colloquial for use in many pieces of writing. It just doesn’t sound good for a author to place “I couldn’t discover nothing to exonerate him of the accusation” when putting together a characteristic for a serious magazine.
Due to as we speak’s emphasis on brief, straightforward-to-understand textual content, double negatives have become doubly frowned upon. That’s as a result of they make it impossible to scan the text. Shortly gloss over a double unfavourable and you'll completely get the other message of what the author meant - not probably the most efficient approach to write in the digital age.
