DOUBLE "NO"

Question

Hello, can you say: "I don't have anyone with me" or the correct way would be "I have anyone with  me"? I am spanish and this is quite confusing for me because in my language we tend to deny twice.

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

Use either 'I don't have anyone with me' or 'I have no one with me'.

Englishmaven · Answer

It is confusing for you. In Spanish, if it is negative, it is altogether negative. I wish you were right here because I have a really good demonstration I use with my students to explain the double negative thing in English to them. I speak Spanish as a second language, and it took me a while to get it figured out in your language. "No tengo nada" almost fried my brain. I wanted to say, "No tengo algo," of course. But I finally realized that in Spanish, if it is negative, that is it. It's negative. You can really go for it in a negative way.

There are some things we can say in English that you just can't say in Spanish because it comes out with a different meaning. That is not to say that Spanish can't express everything English can. Of course, that's not true. Spanish is an extremely capable language.

You can say, "I don't have anyone with me." That makes good sense. You cannot say, "I have anyone with me." That doesn't work at all. You can use "anyone" in an affirmative question: Do you have anyone with you? No, I don't have anyone with me. OR Yes, I have someone with me.

I am going to try to talk you through my demonstration. Let's see if this works, if it helps you.

Picture this: I am holding my hand out, palm side up. (Maybe if you actually do this yourself, it will be clearer for you.) There is nothing on my hand. My hand is empty. I have nothing.
Now, I put an eraser on the palm of my hand while I hold my hand palm up. There is something on my hand. I have something.
Look at my empty palm again. I have nothing on my hand. I have nothing.
Look at my palm with the eraser on it. I have something on my hand. I have something.
If I have something on my hand, I don't have "nothing" on my hand. I do have something. I don't have nothing. When I have nothing, my hand is empty. When I don't have nothing, I have something (the eraser) on my hand.
"Nothing" is the absence of "something."
So in English, we can say, "I have nothing" and "I don't have nothing." The thing is that these two sentences express completely opposite ideas.

That has either helped you, or it completely scrambled your brain. It is very effective as an in-person explanation. Usually, when I do that with a class, some students understand it very well. Some understand it, but can't retain it the next day. Still others don't understand it at all, and they are beyond confused. But I do think I have had good success with that idea when I have been able to work individually with a student. The fact is that it is a hard thing to grasp.

As you may know, it is not a good idea, as a general rule, to ask native speakers to explain this or any other grammar concept to you. They don't know, but they think they know. Who knows what they might tell you? As far as native speakers who are not English teachers go, they are good informants. That means you can ask them if a sentence sounds right and you can ask them to read something to you for pronunciation. Native speakers have an amazing command of their native language. The irony is that they know very little about the language they speak. Weird. Second language students almost always know a lot more about a language than that language's native speakers.

You said that in Spanish, you tend to deny twice. I would say it isn't that so much as it is that in Spanish, once something is negative, additional negatives just serve to emphasize the negative aspect of it all. In Spanish, it is all affirmative or all negative.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI don't have anyone with me

Correct. In short, the pattern is 'not ... any ...'. You must have a form of 'not' (no, not, n't, ...) first; then 'any'.

I don't have any money. / She didn't see any students there. / He does not know anybody here. (Good.)
I have any money. / She saw any students there. / He knows anybody there. (Wrong!)

CJ

DOUBLE "NO"

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