175
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"It really doesn't matter" v "It doesn't really matter"
When the adverb really comes before a negated auxiliary, the effect is of emphasising the truth of the sentence:
I really cannot tell the difference.
Here the speaker is emphasising that they ...
33
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between "The army didn't have any" and "didn't have no" in "It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier"?
It is a dig at the alleged low intelligence of the military personnel. Throughout that song there are sideswipes at the military in general.
Examples:
He couldn't tell a shelter half from an ...
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27
votes
"It really doesn't matter" v "It doesn't really matter"
Ultimately the word "really" means the same in both cases, of adding strength or emphasis.
If we swap "really" for "definitely" this becomes more clear: The first one is like
"It definitely ...
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24
votes
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Non-existing or nonexisting
Short answer: neither. The word you want is nonexistent.
Longer answer: You can actually add a "non" prefix to any word to make up something new, even if it's not in the dictionary. (If you ...
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20
votes
Are "No more healthy than" and "No more big than" both OK?
Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik have the following in their A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (pp. 462-463):
Most adjectives that are inflected for their comparison can also take ...
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19
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Understanding the purported ambiguity in “Every boy didn’t run”
If "every" is in the scope of "not", it means "It is not the case that every boy ran," or, that is, "Some boy didn't run," or "Not every boy ran." That is the preferred interpretation if every is ...
- 17k
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What is the difference between "The army didn't have any" and "didn't have no" in "It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier"?
The other answers are correct, but they (and the OP) are missing an important piece of context: the first part of the quoted sentence. The full introduction to the song runs as follows:
I have only ...
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18
votes
"Whether or not" vs. "whether"
The New York Times' stylebook says or not is often redundant.
It is ordinarily omitted when the clause functions as a noun, e.g. it is the object of a verb or preposition, or subject of the sentence.
...
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17
votes
Why do not we ask negative questions without a contraction on the not after the verb?
This is an interesting question. I haven't an authoritative answer, but I can sketch the historical development and make some suggestions for how it came to be.
The first thing is that not is an ...
- 75k
17
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"It really doesn't matter" v "It doesn't really matter"
I think it helps a lot to break these two sentences down:
It really doesn't matter: The base sentence here is It doesn't matter. Really is an adverb which modifies doesn't. In this case, it puts ...
- 677
17
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Why can't "any" be used as subject in negative sentences, while "no" can?
First, the question is out of left field. The ungrammaticality of
*Any children didn't come
doesn't have a thing to do with subjects. It has to do with how one uses the word any,
which is rather a ...
- 101k
16
votes
The use of "not" in idiomatic English
If I understand the Pentagon's attitude correctly, the sentence should say "Pentagon experts on Friday said it was impossible to imagine that the missile could have been fired without Russian help," ...
- 17.9k
14
votes
What is the origin of auxiliary verbs?
The rise of 'do' in the history of English
The history of do has long been of interest to historical linguists, and there is an extensive literature on the rise of do in the history of English. The ...
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14
votes
Can I use 'better still' in negative sentences?
As an aside, I think three articles can be dropped to form a clearer sentence.
Also, the question mark confuses me a little bit, because the sentence is structured as a factual statement, not as a ...
- 35.9k
14
votes
Are "No more healthy than" and "No more big than" both OK?
Instead of using more to form comparatives, notice what happens when you use inflection for the comparative degree:
Oversleeping is no healthier than overeating.
The camera is no bigger than my ...
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12
votes
Why do not we ask negative questions without a contraction on the not after the verb?
There are several rules involved here.
Not-Placement, which puts not immediately after the first auxiliary verb.
Auxiliary-Negative Contraction, which optionally produces a single contracted ...
- 101k
11
votes
Is it "Don't let's" or "Let's don't"?
According to the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum 2002), there are two dialect usages within Standard English with regard to let's.
One of these has let as a verb ...
10
votes
Accepted
Understanding the purported ambiguity in “Every boy didn’t run”
The quote would be clearer if it spoke of the difference between the reading in which all boys didn’t run and (that in which) some did.
In the positive version “every boy ran”, there is no ambiguity: ...
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9
votes
Accepted
untypical, atypical, nontypical
Atypical is by far the most common of the three, as confirmed in a Google Ngram search, so that would be my suggestion.
Untypical is apparently most often used in the phrase "not untypical". Another ...
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9
votes
"It really doesn't matter" v "It doesn't really matter"
When dealing with modifiers, it is crucial to understand what is being modified, and in English, this is typically determined positionally: modifiers tend to come directly before the thing being ...
- 494
9
votes
is "weren't you..." considered grammatically correct? Because expanded, it would translate to "were not you..."
It's absolutely considered grammatically correct. Remember, languages change over time, and abbreviations being added to languages is normal, sometimes leaving the abbreviation in common usage but the ...
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8
votes
Why does "Why doesn't it work?" become "Why does it not work?"
I don't have a good answer for the question "Why does 'Why doesn't it work?' become 'Why does it not work?'” The shift is doubly intriguing if (like me) you don't see a compelling reason (beyond mere ...
- 152k
8
votes
Accepted
Is it normal to use "yes" begin a negative answer?
According to On the syntax of yes and no in English (alt link: download PDF), English uses the polarity-based system, in contrast to languages like Japanese that use the truth-based system. (This is ...
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8
votes
No man (or woman) is an island
The normal understanding of "No man is an island" is that there is not any man who is an island (lives in complete isolation).
However, the specific wording of "No woman is also an island" may (...
- 7,086
8
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Understanding the purported ambiguity in “Every boy didn’t run”
This stack is about usage. First, "every boy didn't run" is a very awkward usage, and would not be used without context. The context will decide which meaning is applicable.
”Your list of ...
8
votes
Accepted
Where should "never" go in "Harris Should Have Never Run for President"
This seems to be an American English vs British English issue. Here are the results of searching for these phrases in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA, 560 million words) and the ...
- 12k
8
votes
Accepted
"Negating" a sentence (by adding, perhaps, "no" or "don't") gives the same meaning
They belong to a class of words or phrases called opposonyms.
opposonym: a word or phrase that appears to be the opposite of another word or phrase but actually has the same or a similar meaning, ...
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7
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Can a positive statement be combined with a positive question tag like "did you" or is "didn't you" necessary?
Tag questions always swap negative values; like multiplying by minus one.
Although tags with two negatives are impossible:
*You never went there, didn't you?
*She isn't coming tonight, isn't she?
...
- 101k
7
votes
Accepted
can't ever vs can never
Grammatically, they are absolutely interchangeable. Any advantage in one over the other would be a question of style.
In I can never win, the "n" in "never" stands for the negative "not". In I can't ...
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