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Difficultés anglaises

> double negative The occurrence of two negative words in a single sentence or clause, as in "He didn't say nothing" and "We never had no quarrel". This is usually considered incorrect in standard English, although it is a feature of some social or regional dialects. The use of the double negative, if taken literally, often has the opposite meaning to the one intended. Thus "He didn't say nothing" conveys the idea that "He said something".• Some double negatives are considered acceptable, as in "I wouldn't be surprised if they don't turn up", although it is better to restrict such constructions to informal contexts. The sentence quoted conveys the impression that the speaker will be quite surprised if "they" do "turn up". Another example of an acceptable double negative is "I can't not worry about the children. Anything could have happened to them". Again this type of construction is best restricted to informal contexts.• It is the semi-negative forms, such as "hardly" and "scarcely", that cause most problems with regard to double negatives, as in "We didn't have hardly any money to buy food" and "They didn't have barely enough time to catch the bus". Such sentences are incorrect. Pour éviter fautes de grammaire, contresens et confusions. The English Usage Dictionary est le parfait complément des dictionnaires bilingues, du dictionnaire de définitions anglaises et du Thesaurus. Ce dictionnaire signale toutes les difficultés que recèle l'usage d'un mot: orthographe, grammaire, prononciation, homonymies, etc. Exemple d'article du dictionnaire English Usage Dictionary