Evitar la doble negación en inglés
Entender la gramática es clave para entender un idioma. Trucos sobre la gramática inglesa con Gymglish, aprende inglés online.
PRUEBA TU NIVEL DE INGLÉS
Prueba gratuita, sin obligación de compra
4,7 en App Store, Play Store y Trustpilot.
Más de 8.000.000 de usuarios en todo el mundo
Evitar la doble negación
La doble negación: toda proposición negativa debe tener una sola negación.
Algunos pronombres o adverbios como no, nothing (nada), nobody (nadie), never (nunca) se denominan términos negativos. Ellos mismos expresan la negación:
Algunos pronombres o adverbios como no, nothing (nada), nobody (nadie), never (nunca) se denominan términos negativos. Ellos mismos expresan la negación:
He never comes over for dinner. Él nunca viene a cenar a casa.
There is nothing to worry about. No hay nada de qué preocuparse.
Nobody will work tomorrow. Nadie trabajará mañana.
Cuando ya existe una negación en la frase, entonces se utiliza:
any en lugar de no,
anything en lugar de nothing,
anybody en lugar de nobody,
ever en lugar de never...
any en lugar de no,
anything en lugar de nothing,
anybody en lugar de nobody,
ever en lugar de never...
He has no friends.
He doesn't have any friends. Él no tiene ningún amigo.
He doesn't have any friends. Él no tiene ningún amigo.
I see nothing from here.
I can't see anything from here. No veo nada desde aquí.
I can't see anything from here. No veo nada desde aquí.
She never calls me.
She doesn't ever call me. Ella nunca me llama.
She doesn't ever call me. Ella nunca me llama.
People never call me Mr. Cheeter...
Nobody ever calls me Mr. Cheeter... Nunca nadie me llama Mr. Cheeter.
(Nobody lleva la negación)
Nobody ever calls me Mr. Cheeter... Nunca nadie me llama Mr. Cheeter.
(Nobody lleva la negación)
Ejercicio 1
I don't want to see your ugly face again.
I don't ever want to see your ugly face again.
ever: 'Ever' is the best choice here. In a sentence which already carries negation, 'ever' is used as the affirmative equivalent of 'never' to express the idea of something which happens 'at no time' or 'on no occasion'
never: Using 'never' forms a double negative, which is grammatically incorrect.
always: 'Always' does not make sense in this construction. In English, 'always' is rarely used in negative constructions.
sometimes: 'Sometimes' does not make sense here. The construction 'I don't' is never followed by 'sometimes' to express frequency.
Ejercicio 2
Horatio has liked Kevin very much.
Horatio has never liked Kevin very much.
never: Because this sentence carries no negation, we must use the negative term 'never' to create a grammatically correct statement.
ever: Using 'ever' forms a grammatically incorrect sentence. In order to correctly express this thought in an affirmative construction, we must use a negative term.
Ejercicio 3
Icarus's mother advises him to leave home without a clean pair of underwear.
Icarus's mother advises him never to leave home without a clean pair of underwear.
never: Because this sentence carries no negation, we must use the negative term 'never' to create a grammatically correct statement.
ever: Using 'ever' forms a grammatically incorrect sentence. In an affirmative construction such as this one, we must use a negative term to correctly complete the sentence.
Ejercicio 4
Polly says that she hasn't told a lie, but we know better.
Polly says that she hasn't ever told a lie, but we know better.
ever: 'Ever' is the best choice here. Because this construction is negative ('hasn't' carries the negation), we must use the affirmative term 'ever' to complete the sentence correctly.
never: 'Hasn't' already carries the negation of this sentence. Using 'never' forms a double negative, which is grammatically incorrect.
always: 'Always' does not fit in this sentence. 'Hasn't' and 'always' cannot be used together to express frequency.
Ejercicio 5
Polly says Kevin doesn't know how to do right.
Polly says Kevin doesn't know how to do anything right.
anything: 'Anything' is the correct choice because 'doesn't' carries the negation of the sentence.
nothing: 'Nothing' is incorrect because 'doesn't' already carries the negation of the phrase. To say Kevin 'doesn't know how to do nothing right' forms a double negative, which is grammatically incorrect.
never: 'Never' does not make sense here.
ever: 'Ever' doesn't fit in this sentence.
¿Todavía tienes dificultades con 'Evitar la doble negación'? Mejora tu inglés con Gymglish: ¡prueba ahora nuestras lecciones de inglés gratis y recibe un certificado de nivel gratis!
Lo que dicen nuestros usuarios:
Descubre otras reglas gramaticales. Mejora tu inglés y prueba Gymglish, cursos en inglés en línea.
