Your high school English teacher probably told you that double negatives are always incorrect. Almost any native English speaker will be able to tell you that the following sentence isn’t correct.
I ain’t done nothing wrong.
The two negatives (ain’t and nothing) cancel each other out so the sentence means that the speaker has, in fact, done something wrong. (Let’s forget about the slang ain’t in this example!)
However, in some cases, a double negative can be used for good effect.
It is not at all unlikely that the political candidate will speak publicly about his drug use.
Does this mean that the politician will or will not speak about the drug use? Your guess is as good as the Word Nerd’s. This type of sentence construction is often used to insert ambiguity into the conversation. It is grammatically correct and can add considerable interest to your conversations.
