Common Writing Mistakes: Double Negatives

We write negative clauses and sentences when we want to indicate that something is not true, does not exist, is not wanted, or did not happen. They typically include a negative word such as “no”, “never”, “nothing”, “nowhere”, “not”, or any word with a contracted form of “not” such as “didn’t” or “haven’t” or “wasn’t”.

Here are some example sentences. You can find the negative words in boldface:

My grandmother was not born in the United States.

Kai and Liane won’t eat vegetables, seafood, eggs, or anything spicy.

My colleagues have not mentioned anything about the workshop.

Don’t let those guys talk you into drinking too much.

Sergio never would have let the workers leave a job unfinished like this.

There is nothing in the garage except for some old tools.

Stefano couldn’t find any spare parts for his truck.

Josie didn’t go to work yesterday, and she is not in her office now.

The above sentences are all grammatically correct. There is a difference between a negative and a double negative. Negatives are fine—without them, we wouldn’t be able to express certain ideas. However, double negatives are a common writing mistake among native and non-native English speakers alike. In this article, we will examine what a double negative looks like and how to change double negatives into the correct form. We will even look at certain contexts where it is actually okay to use a double negative!

What is a double negative?

A double negative uses two negative words in the same clause. When this happens, the two negative words cancel each other out. As a result, the sentence might not make sense, or someone might think the meaning is the opposite of what it is meant to be. Think about it—if you “don’t have no money”, it means that you actually do have money!

The following are some sentences with double negatives. In each one, both of the negative words are highlighted in boldface.

Viktor didn’t finish none of his homework.

“I won’t eat no salad!” said Kai.

“I don’t want no mushrooms!” said Liane.

We never see no kids playing outside in this neighborhood.

I don’t have nothing to say about the missing diamonds.

Roberto is a nice guy, but he never finishes nothing on time.

The management doesn’t allow no dogs in this apartment.

Don’t bring none of your weird friends to my party.

Jeff looked everywhere for those files, but he couldn’t find none of them.

Many negatives, but separate clauses

Now, let’s backtrack for a moment and take another look at the final example sentence from the first section of this article:

Josie didn’t go to work yesterday, and she is not in her office now.

This sentence has two independent clauses with a negative word in each one. In general, it is okay to use two negative words in the same sentence as long as they aren’t in the same clause. The two negative words do not form a double negative because each one is part of a separate idea. Therefore, the example sentence is correct.

If you go back to the very beginning of this article, you may notice that the two opening sentences also contain multiple negative words:

We write negative clauses and sentences when we want to indicate that something is not true, does not exist, is not wanted, or did not happen. They typically include a negative word such as “no“, “never“, “nothing“, “nowhere“, “not“, or any word with a contracted form of “not” such as “didn’t” or “haven’t” or “wasn’t“.

The first sentence includes a number of clauses. These are dependent clauses, but each one still represents a separate idea, and there is only one negative word per clause. In the second sentence, the negative words are simply items in a series. These words are not used in the same way as they are when they form double negatives.

How to fix a double negative

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to correct double negatives. Usually, we would change one of the negative words (usually the second one) into a positive or neutral word. For example, we can change “nothing” into “anything” or “none” into “any”.

Here are some sentences with double negatives, along with the corrected versions of those same sentences:

Double negative	Correct form
I didn’t bring no lunch.	I didn’t bring any lunch.
Charlie cannot see nothing without his glasses.	Charlie cannot see anything without his glasses.
My family never took no vacations when I was a kid.	My family never took any vacations when I was a kid.

In our three example sentences above, you can also simply eliminate one of the negatives:

I didn’t bring lunch.

Charlie cannot see without his glasses.

My family never took vacations when I was a kid.

Can we fix a double negative by changing the first negative word? Sometimes we can. It’s usually a little trickier, and the result sometimes sounds awkward. But it can be done:

I brought no lunch.

Charlie sees nothing without his glasses.

My family took no vacations when I was a kid.

Is it ever okay to use a double negative?

Among native English speakers, double negatives are sometimes used in informal speech or in certain dialects or cultural contexts. Although double negatives should be avoided in business, academic, or any other type of formal writing/speech, they frequently pop up in movies, novels, plays, and songs.

For example, here are some well-known pop songs that have double negatives in their titles:

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”—The Rolling Stones

“Never Gonna Not Dance Again”—P!nk

“You Haven’t Done Nothin'”—Stevie Wonder

“Don’t Come Around Here No More”—Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

“Ain’t No Sunshine”—Bill Withers

“Ain’t No Other Man”—Christina Aguilera

“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”—Diana Ross

You may have noticed that several of these song titles either include the non-standard word “ain’t”, or they have other grammatical errors in addition to the double negatives. Since these artists are some of the biggest-ever names in the music business, obviously “incorrect” English resonates with a lot of people throughout the world!

That being said, most of our TextRanch customers are writing business emails, academic papers, cover letters, and legal documents where correct grammar is a must. So if you’re having difficulty with double negatives, click the blue box below and one of our TextRanch editors will check your writing and give you some feedback.