I don’t know nothing.

Question

Isn't the above sentence using a double-negative? So it should be a positive statement, shouldn't it? However I've found it actually means "I don’t know anything." or "I know nothing." Why is that? How to tell when it means positive and when negative?

I've found an example on the net, "there is not nothing to worry about!" It says this is a positive statement. It's quite confusing.

By the way, a bit off-topic. Should I include the ending punctuation mark of the quoted examples before the last enclosing quotation mark?

GPY · Accepted Answer

"I don't know nothing" is almost always bad English for "I don't know anything". Occasionally it might be used with its proper meaning of "I know something". For example:

A: I thought you knew nothing.
B: I don't know nothing.

The only way to tell that it might be used correctly is from the context, and also possibly from the education level of the speaker, since educated speakers will not use it to mean "I don't know anything" (except jokingly or knowingly).

The "bad English" use of double negatives, which is limited to colloquial speech, will typically come with contractions where available, e.g. "don't" rather than "do not", and the same is true of your other example. With no other information, "There is not nothing to worry about!" seems likely to mean that there is something to worry about, while "There ain't nothing to worry about" would always mean "There is nothing to worry about".

CalifJim · Answer

healerShould I include the ending punctuation mark of the quoted examples before the last enclosing quotation mark?

Yes.

Correct: She said, "Certainly!" / He asked, "How can that be?"
Not correct: She said, "Certainly"! / He asked, "How can that be"?

CJ

I don’t know nothing.

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