Double negatives: when to use them and when to abhor them

I can’t believe I haven’t written an article on double negatives yet!

Double negatives are basically two negative words used to present a single negative meaning. A famous example are two lines from Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall:

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control

Both sentences use the negative words “not” and “no”, but the usage seems to imply a single negative thought (either “We don’t need education” or “We need no education”, for example).

Setting aside the possibility that it was written entirely as an ironic commentary on contemporary society, the point of this article isn’t to criticize Roger Waters’ choice in lyrics. Certainly there are many other well-known double negatives (Rolling Stones’ “I can’t get no satisfaction”, as another example), but the usage is quite pervasive in informal speech.

• I didn’t remember neither the colour nor the flavour of that pepper.
• I don’t want none of those hot peppers.
• Scarcely nobody likes hot peppers.
• I can’t eat only a few hot peppers.
• The peppers he ate were so hot, they made it so he couldn’t hardly breathe.
• I don’t know nothing about growing peppers.
• I never saw no one I thought better at pepper eating.

Using double negatives like these actually turns the sentences into positives. Here’s what they actually mean:

• I remember at least the colour or the flavour of that pepper, but perhaps even both.
• I want at least some of those hot peppers.
• Quite a few people likes hot peppers.
• I can eat several hot peppers.
• The peppers he ate were so hot, they made it so he could breathe at least normally.
• I know at least a little about growing peppers.
• I saw at least one person I thought better at pepper eating.

This is why double negatives seem to garner so much negative attention.

That being said, there are some instances when double negatives are acceptable. In those cases, it’s usually “not” used with negative adjectives often starting with prefixes like “un” or “im”.

• Well, walking the tightrope across the Grand Canyon was not impossible.
• The escargots I ordered were not unappealing.
• Since you asked, I’m not unhappy.

In each instance, the speaker is trying to be negative but not too negative: it was technically possible, but quite difficult; it was appealing, but still pretty gross; happy, but just barely.

Here’s another example:

• I saw her trip, her groceries falling everywhere; I couldn’t not help.

In this case, the speaker discusses something they did by emphasizing what they didn’t do; it leaves the reader with an impression of being compelled to do something.

What are your thoughts on the double negative?