{"id":72234,"date":"2019-09-17T08:23:29","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T08:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=72234"},"modified":"2019-09-17T08:26:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T08:26:10","slug":"double-negatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/double-negatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Negatives And Double Possessives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper\">\n<section id=\"main\">Never use a negative verb and a negative qualifier (e.g. nothing, hardly, scarcely, nobody etc.) together.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Incorrect: I haven\u2019t nothing to prove.<\/li>\n<li>Correct: I <b>have nothing<\/b> to prove. <b>OR <\/b>I <b>haven\u2019t got anything<\/b> to prove.<\/li>\n<li>Incorrect: Alice can\u2019t hardly wait until her birthday.<\/li>\n<li>Correct: Alice <b>can hardly<\/b> wait for the holidays. <b>OR<\/b> Alice <b>can\u2019t<\/b> wait for the holidays.<\/li>\n<li>Incorrect: There wasn\u2019t nobody at the door. Correct: There <b>was nobody<\/b> at the door. <b>OR<\/b> There <b>wasn\u2019t anybody<\/b> at the door.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that <b>nobody<\/b> means the same as <b>not anybody<\/b>. In the same way, <b>nothing<\/b> means the same as <b>not anything<\/b>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrapper\">\n<section id=\"main\">\n<h3>Double possessives<\/h3>\n<p>The double possessive (of + possessive pronoun) is used when we wish to emphasize the person who possesses rather than the thing which he\/she possesses.<\/p>\n<p>Compare:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He is <b>my friend<\/b>. (The emphasis is on friend.)<\/li>\n<li>He is a <b>friend of mine<\/b>. (The emphasis is on mine not friend.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other examples are given below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is he not a <b>friend of yours? <\/b><\/li>\n<li>Once I lent him a <b>book of mine <\/b>and never got it back.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that when used with <b>this, that, these <\/b>and <b>those<\/b>, the double possessive often expresses ideas such as slight contempt, ridicule or indignation.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>This cat of yours <\/b>drank up all the milk.<\/li>\n<li><b>These shoes of mine <\/b>pinch me terribly.<\/li>\n<li><b>That boy of yours <\/b>has broken my window again.<\/li>\n<li><b>Those dirty fingers of yours <\/b>have stained the walls.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Never use a negative verb and a negative qualifier (e.g. nothing, hardly, scarcely, nobody etc.) together. Incorrect: I haven\u2019t nothing to prove. Correct: I have nothing to prove. OR I haven\u2019t got anything to&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[1425,1424],"class_list":["post-72234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-double-negative","tag-double-negatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72237,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72234\/revisions\/72237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}