1

English is not my native language. I have a confusion regarding 2 sentences.

1) I can't see any more

2) I can't see no more

I speak like I mentioned the first one, is the second sentence correct? There are a lot of sentences that I heard recently where people use no instead of any.

Danyal Sandeelo
  • 111
  • 2
    "I can't see no more" is how you say it in very informal non-standard English (many common varieties in the US and UK, eg AAE, Southern US). It is the perfect example of the controversial 'double negative'. 'Correct' really means 'socially expected' (eg newspaper writing,with most people in public). You most likely want to use the first one, unless you're with friends who tend to say the second one. – Mitch Dec 26 '18 at 15:33
  • Right. In French or Spanish or lots of other languages the second one would be right and the first would be just weird. English has a phenomenon called "Negative Polarity", where there are special words and phrases like any more that can only be used with negatives, and they get used in sentences like (1) instead of repeating negatives for emphasis in sentences like (2). But the tendency is there and it occurs in many dialects, as noted. Negation is a very complex thing. – John Lawler Dec 26 '18 at 15:45

0 Answers0