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Sm_counsell Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
'Somebody' in negative sentences
Eg. We began to think that somebody didn't want visitors......
Why can I use 'somebody in a negative sentence. Shouldn't it follow the same rules as 'SOME/ANY
Why can I use 'somebody in a negative sentence. Shouldn't it follow the same rules as 'SOME/ANY
Top answer
I see no problem with it. Would you mind stating the rule you refer to? We may escape it because the negation is in the relative clause, rather than the main clause.
- I see no problem with it.
- Would you mind stating the rule you refer to?
- We may escape it because the negation is in the relative clause, rather than the main clause.
- " In this case it's a simple sentence, and I still see no problem.
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3 Answers
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I see no problem with it. Would you mind stating the rule you refer to?
We may escape it because the negation is in the relative clause, rather than the main clause.
Clearly, "Somebody doesn't like me," or "Someone dislikes me," has an entirely different meaning from "Nobody likes me."
In this case it's a simple sentence, and I still see no problem.
We may escape it because the negation is in the relative clause, rather than the main clause.
Clearly, "Somebody doesn't like me," or "Someone dislikes me," has an entirely different meaning from "Nobody likes me."
In this case it's a simple sentence, and I still see no problem.
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Not sure of what rule(s) you are referring to, but the sentence is correct.
In your example, "somebody" can mean a couple of things, but it isn't necessarily negative. One way is that the speaker actually knows who "doesn't want visitors" and is being coy in the expression "somebody". The other is that the speaker genuinely doesn't know who the person is and is using "somebody" as
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