You don't know nothing!

You don’t know nothing – using a double negative with the sense of a single negative is illogical and incorrect. When you think of it, someone who doesn’t know nothing, must know something!

A double negative, also referred to as disambiguation, occurs when two forms of negation are used in the same clause. In English, when two negatives are used they seem to cancel each other and present a positive. However, they are not commonly used in written English they appear in speech in Southern American English and African American English and also in regional variations of British English. In Pink Floyd’s ‘’Another Brick in the Wall’’ kids sing We don’t need no education. We don’t need no thought control. That might be a part of make-up put on by the author of the song to portray characters’ lower and uneducated status. Similarly, Rolling Stones released the song ‘’I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’’.

Conversely, in Polish double negatives result in a changed meaning or don’t make much sense. Saying I go nowhere (Idę nigdzie) would be a very unnatural construction and instead Polish speakers say I don’t go nowhere (Nie idę nigdzie). Similarly, saying I saw nobody (Widziałem nikogo) could mean you saw somebody called Nobody and if you want to say you didn’t see anyone you’re supposed to use double negative I didn’t see nobody (Nie widziałem nikogo).

There are also triple negatives too and these might be found in some variations of British English. Dot Branning from the British soap opera Eastenders says: I ain’t never heard of no license. Wonder how we should understand that… do triple negatives result in positive too? My head is about to explode!