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by flashback2199
974 days ago
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Oh don't worry, I understand that just fine. It's the speaker's or writer's task to iterate for a half second to find whatever non double negative sentence fits what they want to say. English isn't code. You can't say double negatives in conversation or writing, and you have to find the closest thing without using a double negative. |
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It is in fact not the case that you can't say that. Double negatives, like sentences with a excessive number of conjuctions, are perfectly grammatical (when they don't violate some actual grammatical rule like the one "You do can say that." does); rather, they are in most cases stylistically bad, for much the same reasons that:
is stylistically bad, namely excessive and more importantly needless complexity.