Do you use triple negatives in real life?

Personally I don’t, most people understand double and triple negatives to be more intense versions of “no.”

I don't, but this kind of sentence is more common in certain regional dialects (the American South and AAVE).

Yes, all the time, but not when speaking standard English. I am from New York and this is a dialectal feature where I am from but it's "substandard."

it’s more common in AAVE than standard english. the southeast as well. they’re certainly an advanced concept. a general rule of thumb for multiple negatives is an even number of negations means it’s an affirmative statement (“i *can’t not* go!” = “i have to go!”), and an odd number is a negative (“*can’t nobody* tell me *nothin’*” = “nobody can tell me anything”).

I don't use triple negatives in normal speech (maybe occasionally in a riddle or some attempt at humour), and I don't think that anyone else does, either. This isn't a triple negative: it's negative concord. All the words in the sentence are negated, and the sentence overall has a negative meaning. You don't need to count the negatives and work out whether it's an odd or even number. Negative concord is non-standard (or, to put it another way, it's absent from the prestige dialects of English, but present in many others). There's nothing especially correct about "standard" English, but it's probably the one you're aiming for as an English learner.

Really only in extremely informal situations or for jokes. And it’s definitely a dialect thing, not all english speakers are gonna use triple negatives

Yes. Although this is AAVE. So double/triple negatives don't function the same way. They essentially use negative concord. So no matter how many negatives are added to that sentence, it would still be a negative. In the context of the screenshot: Ain't nobody sharin nothing = Nobody sharin nothing = Nobody is sharing anything

I don’t, but it’s very common in some varieties of English

I don't, but some people do. It's just a dialect thing.

If you don't mind me stating the obvious: please remember that any English you learn from *Grand Theft Auto* is almost certainly informal and probably also rude.

This is dialect. Don’t speak like this.

In real life, maybe: context is super important though because this is an informal spoken dialect (aave), so it would be incorrect in a school paper / news article / presentation, but people will understand you as long as you follow all the other rules of aave

I don't *not* do that.

Yeah, me + my family speak like that on a daily basis

Not me, in Galician there is a double negation. But in Andalusia yes "No ni na!"

Ye, melon people love to talk like that

Only as a joke

Even though I would try not to I think lots of people talk this way and understand things like this from experience with informal english that otherwise wouldn't make sense. This is very much a 'colloquialism'. The "nothin'" is basically superlative, emphasizing how certain they are that no one will share anything. You could say "ain't nobody sharin' anything" and it would mean the same thing even though "nothing" and "anything" are opposites. That could be very confusing because one might think "ain't nobody sharin' nothin'' meant something the same as "nobody will share nothing", so that everyone will share at least something. But it actually means "nobody will share anything".

yes! It’s considered “common” / “low class” though and some people think it means I’m uneducated (I am educated! I know what ‘correct’ official English is, but I can also use slang) I’m from London and now live nearer Birmingham

this is smth sm1 would say. It isn't formal though

In AAVE / black English, this is proper and grammatically correct. In other dialects it’s not. Using it without speaking the dialect is like randomly using French grammar in English.

If you want to get technical, this is called "[negative concord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative#Two_or_more_negatives_resolving_to_a_negative)", which means that all those words are negative because they conform to the negativity of the whole statement. I'd say this isn't exactly repeated negations, it's like a blanket implementation of a single negation.

It’s good to understand this use of the English language just to be able to understand others when they speak. It’s not formal English but good to know.

Yes, but it’s informal and generally used in exasperation or to be funny.

I wouldn't even treat this as a thing where you count negatives. This is AAVE (African American Vernacular English. It is widely considered slang by the public but taken more seriously by linguists, has its own linguistic rules etc. I think it's properly consider a dialect?) The negative is just being emphasized, and the count of negatives isn't important to it. A famous one is "Ain't nobody got time for that." This double negative doesn't cancel into a positive. The meaning of it is "No one has time for that.". The same kind of thing is going on in this triple negative. It doesn't matter how many, it's just communicating "nope nope nope". (I'm not an expert or native user of AAVE but I have exposure to it.)

I won't say that I ain't never used nothin like that. But day in and day out that's not a common thing for me

That’s not what she didn’t mean to not do.

I do, but usually informally and as part of jokes (I have a pretty dry humor). Though that phrase doesn’t work because the negatives cancel out plus one to make a “negative” again. The additional negatives are for emphasis.

This is dialect. It sounds regional or ethnic, and maybe old-fashioned depending on where you are. There are absolutely people who talk like this, but I wouldn't copy it if you're a non-native speaker, because outside of the right cultural context it'll just sound incorrect and weird. 🥲 Even within the right cultural context, people would probably tone it down in a formal context.

The sentence means that everyone is sharing nothing it doesn’t really make sense. when many negatives are used together it’s often implied to be the meaning of a single negative.

plenty of people do

They exist, but I wouldn’t recommend imitating.

It's very common for lots of English speakers but I wouldn't use it if English is your second language as it's informal and potentially harder for you to say correctly

The problem with this example is that two of these negatives are being incorrectly used anyway. So if he said "ain't nobody sharing anything" or "nobody's sharing nothing" he would still mean the same thing even though there are only two negatives. Native english speakers make mistakes with double negatives so often that they become slang terms. Kind of how "literally" is used incorrectly so often that it can now mean the opposite of it's original definition. This guy is using two incorrect slang double negatives at the same time. The fact that they end up making sense is pure coincidence.

I don't but it's not part of my dialect. Some people definitely do.

What does the phrase in the photo mean? It's hard for me to understand with this triple thing

I can not say that I do not disagree with you

There's some guy on TV who keeps saying "It's not dissimilar". Double negative... why does it annoy me so much?

Yup, but usually only when I’m talking sht to my coworkers lol I use proper grammar as much as I can, when appropriate.

I wouldn't avoid using them, never!

Kids in my school would say “I didn’t never do nothing, I wasn’t not never there” it was hard to keep count of the negatives.

Triple negation isn’t a distinct grammatical structure; it’s essentially just double negation with an extra negative element. In this instance, ain’t is being used as slang to add emphasis, but it’s more commonly used as a substitute for “is not,” “are not,” or “has not.” In Standard English, it’s not considered grammatically correct, not only because of the double negative but also because the contraction doesn’t logically fit with the rest of the sentence. However, in dialectal varieties of English like African American Vernacular English (AAVE), constructions like these are common and grammatically valid within that system. The example you shared features a double negative where the multiple negatives reinforce the negation, rather than cancel each other out. That is a typical feature of many non-standard dialects. Here’s an example of a sentence with three negatives that is grammatically correct in Standard English because it avoids actual double negation: > “I don’t know nobody who has never lied.” However, this phrasing is quite rare. A more natural Standard English version would be: > “I don’t know anybody who has never lied.”

Yes, but mostly for dramatic/comedic effects

I don't use them but I do hear sentences like these occasionally. (What I *do* use as a confusing negative of sorts is "yeah no for sure", but that's just as informal as the example you gave)

it’s very common in aave (african american vernacular english). it’s a dialect

It wouldn’t be considered formal English, and if you’re learning the language I would avoid it, but there are some speakers who do use them.

News reports on court decisions are often triple or even quadruple negatives. "Court declines to overturn a ban on anti-policy protesting..."

I don't speak this way and most (?) english speakers don't speak this way, but it would be easily understandable to most americans and is how some people speak.

To translate into book English, in case the negatives are confusing, "Nobody is sharing anything."

Ain't nobody got time for that!

“Ain’t nobody got no time for that”

This is all informal and doesn’t follow standard rules. This isn’t really an example of a triple negative since nothing actually negates anything else. When used informally “ain’t nobody” is more about emphasis than a double negative. They together form a single negative. But they also aren’t working as a double negative with “sharing nothing”. There are 3 negatives, but 1 emphasizes the next, and the 3rd is independent.

I don’t know about English but that’s just regular Polish

in dialects with compounding negation, you can add as many as you want, tho folks tend to not use the same negation multiple times

Yeah absolutely I use stuff like that. I think the technical term for using multiple negatives to intensify the negation is "negative concord." It's very common in southern American dialects, as well as AAVE

All the time. In everyday life, it's reasonable to assume that most double/triple/quadruple negatives are just negatives, except in very specific cases: "I don't NOT like apples" <- I like apples, but not really that much.

Don’t make me no nevermind!

Not usually, double negatives are relatively uncommon. But I ain't never done that..

This is a common dialectic thing in African American English and Southern American English. That's just something they say pretty frequently.

Yeah,no, of course. The middle no indicates no worries or no problem, do 't even think i wouldnt.

I love when the mention of AAVE makes people mad 😂 they don’t get like this about anything else btw. People will swear up and down that they don’t have anti-Blackness or a superiority complex against Black people, and then get this mad because they either hate that something is Black, or feel like Black people are trying to take the spotlight and that Black people don’t deserve it. It’s not that serious. Y’all do know if ya’ll would’ve been stopped claiming things to not be AAVE when they were, and wouldn’t have done that in the first place, that Black people wouldn’t be mentioning AAVE as much? It’s like people slight Black people, and then get mad when Black people react. Y’all same people will see actual AAVE in these posts, that’s clearly Black, and ya’ll make up fake histories about it, and act like it just spawned from Gen Z. Y’all act like we can’t see the comments under these posts 😂. Racism extending to language learning is beyond me. Racism/Anti-Blackness/Dismissing Black people is why there’s this back and forth. Y’all don’t get that

Yes but only colloquially. Usually to add emphasis or be funny

No because I'm not a future lawyer or doctor.

The dialect spoken here is known to linguistics as AAVE (African American Vernacular English). I strongly recommend learning General American English before attempting to grasp AAVE. This dialect is extremely dynamic and built upon countless nuances that would be nearly impossible to understand otherwise. 

i speak aave, so yes i do, but if you’re just tryna learn standard english there’s no point in tryna learn aave or other dialects/accents with similar grammar rules.

Yes, frequently. I was told to get rid of my accent in school but luckily I kept that part

I ain't done never seen no nothing like that before.

It’s called AAVE, sweatie 💅 look it up

I haven't seen it mentioned yet but if the quote was instead "aint nobody sharin' anything" it would be understood as meaning the same as the original quote.

That’s real English. Ain’t nobody goin’ nowhere.

It’s associated with a certain slang. This wouldn’t be used in formal language

Usually, more ghetto types of people talk like this.

It depends on your dialect or accent. I wouldn’t, but I know people who would. Generally it’s considered “bad grammar” and associated with poor, low class people, even though it’s just a slightly different way to use the language

dude I played this mission yesterday lmao

No, not me, never.

It should be noted that double or triple negatives don't always cancel out, such as this example. "nobody is doing anything" "ain't nobody doing anything" "ain't nobody doing nothing" "ain't everybody doing noting" All 4 mean the roughly same thing despite different negatives, because in this case they are emphasizing. 'ain't' often works like this, amplifying rather than cancelling.

In my General American dialect: never. In theory, you could negate a double negative in Standard English, but that’s too confusing. Nobody fails not to reword a sentence like that. This character appears to be an African-American in an urban setting speaking AAVE (although AAVE is not the only form of English that uses multiple negatives).

Texan here, I hear it and use it frequently

AINT NOBODY SHARING NOT NOTHING

You will hear people talking that way, yeah

It just means “nobody is sharing anything”, and I can’t say I use them but it exists.

This is African American Vernacular English, a dialect spoken mostly by black people in America. On AAVE, double and even triple negatives are often used. The negation doesn't always work how you'd expect here. 'ain't nothing' = 'not anything' -> the negatives don't cancel like they would in standard English. 'don't nobody' = 'no one does' 'ain't no' = 'there is not any' Most Americans are not confused by any of these sentences, and everyone, whether they speak standard English or AAVE, understands what each other means. Like, I could be having a conversation with someone who uses AAVE, and they could say 'don't nobody wanna do all that' and my brain will automatically hear 'nobody wants to do all that', just like when I say 'nobody wants to do all that', they're brain automatically hears 'don't nobody wanna do all that' ETA: also side note, most speakers of AAVE are also very much capable of speaking fluently in standard English as well, as American society is low-key kinda racist and you have to use standard English in a lot of formal setting or risk facing negative bias.

From time to time, yes. I would say it’s worth learning to understand since you’ll see it more on social media if you’re into pop culture.

Yep

That's not a "triple negative". It's just saying "There is nobody sharing anything".

Yes

Sometimes, but it's very casual and highly specific. I wouldn't recommend trying it for someone learning the language.

Yes. It isn’t fully correct but it’s used. Ain’t isn’t required but nobody means no people and nothing refers to whatever isn’t being shared by the people

Really only if you use "ain't" probably, some people just default to using it, leading to them to have to correct later in the sentence and leading to instances like this

”aint nobody” is kind of its own phrase ”aint nobody sharin nothin” and ”aint nobody sharing anything” mean the same thing

I’m from the US south originally and it happens there. I’ve been out of that region for a bit, so I had to dig to think of something we might say. I might say something like this when I’m code switching less. “There ain’t nothing nobody can do about it.”

I will occasionally say something like that for emphasis, but only informally.

Nobody: Californians: No yeah no, totally, like, no, yeah.

Unironically, no. But yes, I use them all the time.

It's not true it's not nothing. Probably. But rarely.

My language has them as default.

No, this is improper grammar

Keep in mind that in some varieties of English (namely AAVE - African American vernacular English) a double- or triple- behaves the same way as a single negative. I ain't doin' nothin' -- the speaker is not doing anything

this use of aint before a normal double negative is required in many broad aave dialects, but pretty much absent in other speech, so unless you wanna talk like Gerald from gta, you can just ignore it. if youre interested in the specifics, negative pronouns like nobody and nothing replace anybody and anything in negative contexts in many dialects. that’s the phenomenon that leads to so called ‘double-negatives.’ In these dialects, ‘I dont know anything’ is grammatically incorrect, as the negative ‘don’t’ demands a negative pronoun to match: ‘I don’t know nothing.’ Many speakers of broad aave, like Gerald here, won’t even use negative pronouns without a preceding negative element, usually aint, which in aave serves more as a general negative particle i.e. not, than specifically as a negative copula i.e. to not be.

I ain't got no time to be wasting on no b*tches Translation: I don't have time to waste on b*tches. It's usually used as an emphasis. I ain't doing nothing. Translation: either: I'm not doing anything you're suggesting. OR I actually am doing something, so don't say I'm doing nothing

It is typical for black Americans. Also for white Americans in the south of the us.

Its not proper acedemically to do that, but some english speaking sub-dialects use them as slang. This is just an example of that happening.

AAVE (which is being spoken in this scene) uses negatives differently from formal english. In formal english negatives negate each other, whereas in AAVE negatives strengthen eachother. This isn't unique to AAVE, and exists in some other languages as well.

Ain't nobody got no time for that.

I dont think i won't not use them

Ain't nobody usin' no triple negatives

Yes, in more casual settings. For context, I’m a black Canadian

all the time. I'm from the south (Mississippi) so we talk liike that a lot

It’s common in Southern American English

When you try to protect the snitch bur they wipe out your whole squad

As someone who speaks the Appalachian dialect of American English, I would absolutely say “Ain’t nobody sharing nothing.” I wouldn’t recommend trying to say these in conversation if you’re learning English, but double or triple negatives are very common for some dialects in informal speech.

I do sometimes but pretentious people like to say it's incorrect to

well technically thats a negative again so at least it's clear what is meant regardless of wether yo ulogicall count or not so it's clearer tha ndouble

Can’t not confirmp’t.

these are more common in african american vernacular english (AAVE)

Sure ain't no way I'm not gonna

its really a southern usa thing, in my experience

Yes but I live in the south

Double/triple negatives are correct in certain dialects of English (just not standard english), especially those that use ain't, and each extra negative doesn't negate it but instead adds more emphasis. This is like adding 2 explitives So yes this is quite common, in certain dialects like in the southern US and AAVE

It’s a dialect thing. Phrases like this aren’t common in most parts of the English-speaking world, but they’re very common in Southern US English and African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

I don’t not not use them.

yes but in russian

Yes

Ain't never used no triple negatives. Ne-verrr!

Weren’t we not misinformed?

In certain dialects, this is not uncommon. But I don’t know of anywhere that it’s considered “proper” to employ triple or even double negatives.

Depends where you are. I personally only ever hear people who are a part of African American culture talk like this.

I occasionally hear double and triple negatives used, but it seems like it’s intentionally or unintentionally emphasize “no”. So using a triple negative is like saying “no no no” to really hammer home that nobody is doing anything in this case

I do, but I'm from the deep south

You don't hear them often, but you do hear them once in a while

Learning English from video games? Nice, video games can give you the best language lessons because of how diverse the variety of the dialogue every game has.

More common the more southern you are in the US

Geoffrey Chaucer used a triple Negative in one of his Canterbury Tales, The Night's Tale "Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous," which translates to "There never was no man nowhere so virtuous". If it was OK more than 6 centuries ago...

These are amateurs. I'd use a quintuple negative around friends: *"Ain't nobody gon' share nothin' with nobody no way\*."* \* Here, "no way" = the negative form of "anyway"

This is common in AAVE from what I've seen, and it kind of follows the way spanish and some other languages work where the sentence is negative so all words that can be expressed in a negative manner are.

Ain't nobody got no time for that. Is the most common one I hear. To me it just sounds very southern and not very sophisticated.

The only thing it reminds me is the “Ain’t nobody god time for that” meme from a few years ago

i personally don't, but that's because i'm from the east of england. in standard english, and in most british dialects, negatives cancel each other out. so a single negative is a negative, double negative is a positive, triple negative is a negative etc. but in some dialects of english (and the only ones where you'll ever really hear more than one negative in a sentence), using more negatives just strengthens the negative. so using two negatives makes it twice as negative, rather than positive. in this sentence "ain't nobody sharing nothing" the triple negative puts a lot of emphasis on the negative part of the sentence. you definitely do hear people use double and triple negatives, but it's more something you might hear in AAVE or other american dialects. i'm not sure if australians or kiwis use them

It's black slang. Don't use it unless you want to sound uneducated.