English multiple negation

[Molly]

Is multiple negation, in English, often appropriate to the situations in which it occurs?

[MrPedantic]

No, no, no, no, no!

A thousand times no!

MrP

[lost_soul]

[Torsten]

I've heard native speaker say things like "it doesn't mean nothing" so it seems that double negation is quite common in colloquial spoken English.
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[prezbucky]

1000 no's multiplied by themselves would make a yes:

-1 to the 1000th is 1. lol

[Molly]

[prezbucky]

you guys will hear things like "it doesn't mean nothing" all the time down here

or, worse, "it don't mean nothing".

[lost_soul]

How about: I ain now nuttin'
Or: I ain own nobody nuttin'

[prezbucky]

in both of those just replace "ain't" with "don't" -- some down here might say "I don't know nothin'" or "I don't owe nobody nothin'".

"ain't" generally takes the place of "haven't", "hasn't", "aren't", "isn't", etc.:

- I ain't going to the show tonight.

- He ain't done his homework yet.

- They ain't eaten their beans yet.

- They ain't going to the game.

[Molly]

[lost_soul]

[Yankee]

Hi Alex

I might "rectify" things by relocating the word even:
Not only did they not come, they didn't even bother to call and tell us they weren't coming.

By the way, I'd say you'd be far more likely to hear "He don't know nothing" than "He doesn't know nothing".
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[MrPedantic]

1. He is not unusual.
2. He doesn't know nothing = he knows something (emphatic denial that he knows nothing)
3. He doesn't know nothing = he doesn't know anything.

The double negation in #1 and #2 is standard English; though some people dislike the form of #1.

Double negation of the #3 kind is a shibboleth, for many speakers: if you were investing a large sum of money in someone's business, it would be looked upon kindly; but in e.g. an interview, it might have a (doubly) negative effect.

MrP

[prezbucky]

Alex -- sorry I didn't answer sooner

Amy made the necessary correction. (as usual)

Though it ain't quite perfect, I'm impressed with your sentence.

T

[prezbucky]

...and i didn't go quite far enough in one of the above posts when I gave this as an example:

"They ain't eaten their beans yet."

To some down here, it would be even worse:

"They ain't ate their beans yet."