666 - Double Negatives.

Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2019

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's Grammar Girl podcast, we talk about why double negatives aren't always wrong. You just need to be careful with them. FOLLOW GRAMMAR GIRL YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/grammargirl Twitter: http://twitter.com/grammargirl Facebook: http://facebook.com/grammargirl Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/realgrammargirl Instagram: http://instagram.com/thegrammargirl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grammar-girl SPONSORS AND LINKS Enter the 300 Million Download Contest: https://read.macmillan.com/promo/grammargirlcontest3002019/ GRAMMAR POP iOS GAME Optimized for iPad: http://bit.ly/GrammarPopiPad For iPad and iPhone: http://bit.ly/GrammarPop GRAMMAR GIRL BOOKS http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl-book-page GRAMMAR GIRL IS PART OF THE QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS PODCAST NETWORK. VOICEMAIL: 833-214-GIRL

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week I have a meeting middle about double negatives and a family act story.
0:12.5	But before we start, I have a contest to tell you about.
0:15.5	Grammar Girl is part of the Quicken Dirty Tips Podcast Network, and to celebrate the
0:19.9	network reaching the 300 million download milestone, you can enter to win a one-on-one web
0:26.1	call with me.
0:27.9	The entry page has a long URL, so I'll just put it in the show notes.
0:31.4	But it's also the pin to tweet right now at the Quicken Dirty Tips Twitter account, which
0:35.6	is just Quick Dirty Tips.
0:38.3	Quick Dirty Tips.
0:39.4	And now on to the show.
0:43.4	I made an embarrassing mistake the other day.
0:46.0	I wrote, I can't hardly believe something.
0:49.7	When I should have written, I can hardly believe something.
0:54.0	It's hardly as an example of a double negative, something many writing experts say you
0:59.1	should avoid.
1:00.8	And it also doesn't make much sense if you look at it logically.
1:04.3	Often, double negatives seem to mean the opposite of what you're trying to say.
1:09.0	But you may have heard me say before that English isn't always a logical language, and
1:14.1	you'll see that's the case here too.
1:16.9	Double negatives used to be much more common in English than they are today, and chaucers
1:21.6	seem to like them.
1:23.7	For example, he describes the night in the Canterbury Tales by saying, he never yet
	...

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