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Samir1 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Is this double-negative

"There's the less sringent, but nonetheless not casual, rules to work around."

Is "… but nonetheless not casual" a double-negative? If so, may I use it anyway?

Thank you helpers.
  

Top answer

" It's considered ungrammatical in formal English. What you've got in "not casual" is a rhetorical device called litotes, which is expressing an affirmative idea (here "formal") as its negation ("not casual"). You may use it and grammatically.

— Deadrat

  • " It's considered ungrammatical in formal English.
  • What you've got in "not casual" is a rhetorical device called litotes, which is expressing an affirmative idea (here "formal") as its negation ("not casual").
  • You may use it and grammatically.
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3 Answers
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In English, a double negative is two negative particles in the same sentence, e.g., "I'm not never going." It's considered ungrammatical in formal English.

What you've got in "not casual" is a rhetorical device called litotes, which is expressing an affirmative idea (here "formal") as its negation ("not casual"). You may use it and grammatically.
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Samir1Is "… but nonetheless not casual" a double-negative?
No. You're thinking that 'none' in 'nonetheless' makes it the first negative and that 'not' (of course) is the second negative.

Not so. Think of 'but nonetheless not casual' as simply 'but not casual either'.

CJ
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Great thorough responses. Thank you to both.
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