Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Double Negative

Double negatives are confusing in English and do you remember your English teachers telling you not to use it? Do you remember why? It is confusing for the speaker and the listener.

I was reading my textbook and was faced with this sentence structure. It is not a double negative by definition, but it is confusing and may trip you up. At least it did for me, and wasn't intuitive at first.

(T) Verb + 過 不 少
(S) Verb + 过 不 少
(pinyin) Verb + guò  shǎo
Translation: Verb + [experience action marker] not few

Let's replace the verb with 吃(T/S) [chī]
Direct translation : eat not few
This means: He ate a lot or he didn't eat a small amount

Another example. Let's replace the verb with to study 讀(T) 读(S) [dú]
Direct translation: study not few
This means: He studied a lot or he didn't study a small amount of time

Do you see why this sentence structure reminds of me of double negative?

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