Understanding Double Negatives
A Grade 9 ELA worksheet focusing on identifying and correcting double negatives in sentences.
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Understanding Double Negatives
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Read each section carefully and follow the instructions to complete the exercises. This worksheet will help you understand and correct double negatives in sentences.
A double negative occurs when two negative words are used in the same sentence. In standard English, this creates a grammatical error and can often reverse the intended meaning of the sentence. For example, 'I don't have no money' actually means 'I have money.' To correct a double negative, you should remove one of the negative words.
Choose the sentence that contains a double negative.
1. Which sentence contains a double negative?
She hardly ever eats dessert.
I couldn't find my keys anywhere.
They didn't want nothing to eat.
He rarely misses a day of school.
2. Which of the following sentences correctly avoids a double negative?
She doesn't have no patience.
He couldn't scarcely believe his eyes.
They don't know nothing about it.
We have no more cookies left.
Rewrite each sentence to correct the double negative. Make sure the meaning remains the same.
3. I didn't see nobody at the park.
4. She couldn't hardly breathe after the race.
5. He doesn't want no help with his homework.
Determine if the following statements about double negatives are true or false.
6. A double negative always makes a sentence grammatically incorrect in standard English.
True
False
7. Words like 'hardly,' 'scarcely,' and 'barely' can function as negative words.
True
False
8. Explain why using a double negative is considered incorrect in standard English grammar.
9. Write two sentences. One sentence should contain a double negative, and the second sentence should be the corrected version of the first, maintaining the original intended meaning.
Sentence with double negative:
Corrected sentence: