Dear English experts,
It’s confused me whether “I don’t know nothing” is either “double-negative” or expressing that “I have no idea”…
Thanks for your help.
hi, i am Sharvari from India
I think “i dont know anything” is proper that "i dont know nothing "
“I Have no idea” is commonly used sentence.
I don’t know nothing is an old, dated english sentence as it contains a double negative structure. And it mean I know everything. I have no idea or I don’t know anything about it are antonymous sentences for it.
Instead of telling I do’nt know nothing
You can say I know nothing
I think this will be o.k. I feel.
Yes, the problem is that how we are going to “interpret” the sentence, it’s not about “telling” or “saying”. If English is our 2nd language, we might have problem when “hearing” some unusual idioms, like this one…
Dear Phan
Thank you for your reply reagarding the above, I agree with you that English
is IInd language for me and I am also out of touch with this syllabus
I want to know morething from you like this,please excuse me what I wrote.
More you can help me and more I can improve my level best.
Thank you
S.Shanthi
Hi Shanthi,
Not at all! I think I made a mistake in my previous post that I should have said “If English is our 2nd language, we might have problem when “hearing” some unusual idioms, like this one…” since I’m facing this problem sometimes. Sorry for this!
It’s nice to meet you around this forum and keep posting your ideas here… We can learn from each others and share our understanding of English.
“I don’t know nothing” -This kind of double or multiple negation is quite common in African American (Vernacular) English.
The phrase is also used by Caucasian Americans.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening lectures: What does the professor imply about Leonardo da Vinci?[YSaerTTEW443543]
But the intended meaning of people who say I don’t know nothing is I know nothing or I don’t know anything.
Hence, it is really not a double negation.
Why? I don’t know nothing is absolutely double negative. I know nothing means I don’t know anything so if we add the word NOT the sentence then must have the reversed meaning which is I know everything. Compare I want nobody but you and I don’t want nobody but you. Of course they have different meanings.
Hi, it is something so-called “idiom”… As my own experience speaking with some native speakers, i guessed its mean is “I don’t know anything” based on the context. The reason I initiated this thread to double check…
It’s so ridiculous. I can’t expect that there is such IDIOM. Native speakers aren’t always right. Some MAs here in Vietnam have many different opinions from native speakers’ opinions. In in case, who should I believe in? Sometimes, I don’t believe in both. But about this structure, I see many grammar books say that it’s double negative and have explanations as I’ve said. In theory, we must use anyone in a negative clause but when we use double negative which means the sentence become an affirmative one, then of course we can use someone or nobody. For example, I don’t know anything about it is relevant to I know nothing about it, which mean I’ve never heard about it. But I don’t know nothing about it? If it means what you’ve said, then it’s grammatically wrong and just can be used in lyrics.
You still had one more mistake. If English WERE my second language… Because in fact, ENGLISH isn’t our second language, just foreign language.
It is a double negative that people sometimes use to mean “I don’t know anything” or “I know nothing,” although it is grammatically incorrect. It is not an idiom, just a common misuse in some vernaculars. if taken literally it would most closely mean “I know something,” but have never heard it used or understood that way.
Well, I admit that English is my 2nd language and so are most of people around here That is good that you’ve been learning so many things written in the books -It’s good for you! But just for your information, books are not everything about “English”…
There should not be an mistake when saying “If English IS…” (please double check from your books).
It’s definitely true in term of those difficulties that people are trying to learn an language which is not their mother language. Language is constantly changing, especially English, since there are more and more people around the world using it a lot and making some changes as their own favorite. Same thing for Vietnamese, there are tons of difficulties that a foreigner faces when they are trying to “learn” it (I do hope that you have some chances to talk with those people). You might not expect it, but as far as I know, there are thousands of “ridiculous” and “fun” things like this one out there when learning a new language (English in particular).
For more information, that I think is written in some book that “double negation” should be avoided…
Finally, I’m glad to me some of Vietnamese people here love to share their thinking/understanding about this most common language.