Quote Originally Posted by sarah37 View Post
by double negatives in a sentence (which Russian allows). "I haven't never owed nothing to no one" Remember kids in English, as in math two negative equal a positive.
'I haven't ever owed anything to anyone' means "Я никогда никому ничего не был должен". And there's only one negative word: не. It's the only negative word in Russian. Things like ничего, никто, никому etc. are not negative; they act as negative words, so to say. At the same time they never go without the не in a sentence. You may say how about cases like this: - Что ты здесь делаешь? - Ничего. - What are you doing here? - Nothing. There's no single не in the answer. There's actually is one, but it's omitted. The full sentence is 'Я ничего здесь не делаю'. A double negative occurs when two не are used: Я не мог не показать ему, как он выглядит в зеркале. I couldn't help showing him his reflection in the mirror. Maybe there are some other cases when a double negative occurs, but I can't remember them.
"I haven't never owed nothing to no one"
Does this sentence mean something sensible? (Am I correct saying that?) If yes, I'm curious to know what it is.
Remember kids in English, as in math two negative equal a positive.
So it does in Russian.