Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 2795 from 2006/3/21
From: Northern Calif...
Quote:Andreas_Wolf wrote:
Interesting. I, following my recollection from English lessons at school (focussing on British English but given by non-native speakers, mind you) would have used either of those exemplary expressions:
"I doubt either of these changes were made in the main exe [...]."
"I think neither of these changes were made in the main exe [...]."
"I doubt neither of these changes weren't made in the main exe [...]."
The last sentence above does not sound or read right to me. I think you are getting mislead by focusing on the combination of "doubt neither", instead of separating it into "doubt", and "neither of these changes", but I might be wrong in what you are thinking. I admit that it may be easier for a non-English speaking person to understand if he had used "any of these changes were made in the exe." But as I posted already, his word choice was easily understood by most if not all native English speakers.
Quote:To me, "doubt neither of these" reads like the opposite, similar to "doubt none of these". I (wrongly?) understand "neither" as kind of contraction of "not" and "either".
Maybe a non-American native speaker can chime in and enlighten us about their use of either expression
Thanks for your input, though.
See my point above, about combining doubt with neither to convey "no doubt of changes ...", instead of "doubt that none of the changes being made in the main exe".
After reading the above, I don't think I am really explaining it well, and might be causing more confusion. Better to just accept what Jacek wrote about double negatives being used often in English.
Edit: Your English schooling was no doubt more correct, than actual usage of English in communications between native speaking users of the English language. English is after all one of the most confusing languages in the world.
[ Edited by amigadave 03.11.2020 - 13:52 ]MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
