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What is the difference between the following?

I don't know nothing else

and

I know nothing else

There's a don't in the first sentence, however both sentences translated the same in google translator. So, are they used interchangeably?

tchrist
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Dwa
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1 Answers1

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Standard Englishes (all of them) do not allow so-called "double negatives" like your first example, which is ungrammatical in them.

Many speakers throughout the Anglosphere use forms like your first example in their ordinary speech: in their non-standard varieties of English, the form is grammatical, and has the same meaning.

All English speakers understand the first (to mean the second) unless they are being deliberately perverse; but many never use such forms.

I advise a learner never to use the first form unless you understand the social implications of using such a variety of English; but expect to hear and understand it.

Colin Fine
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