5 exercises — fixing negative concord errors ("didn't find no errors") in bug reports and status updates, and distinguishing them from deliberate litotes.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
A non-native English speaker, translating directly from a language that stacks negatives for emphasis, writes: "We didn't find no errors in the log." What does this sentence mean in standard English, and is it what the speaker intended?
Option B is correct, with an important caveat: in many other languages (Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, and others), stacking negative words is negative concord — the negatives agree with and reinforce each other, all pointing the same direction ("no encontramos ningún error" = "we found no errors, period"). Standard formal English does not work this way: two negatives ("didn't" + "no") are read as logically cancelling, technically yielding a positive meaning ("we did find errors"), which is the opposite of most speakers' intent — a genuine source of miscommunication in technical writing. (Colloquial/dialectal English sometimes uses double negatives for emphasis too, but this is non-standard and should be avoided in professional technical writing, where precision is paramount.) Fix: "We didn't find any errors in the log" or "We found no errors in the log."
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly avoids negative concord while stating that a config file has no unused variables?
"The config file doesn't have any unused variables" is correct. The pattern to memorize: pair a negated verb ("doesn't have") with an indefinite/non-negative quantifier ("any"), never with a second negative word ("no", "none", "nobody", "nothing"). This is the core fix for negative concord errors: replace "no" with "any" once the verb is already negated. Option A ("doesn't have no") stacks two negatives incorrectly. Option B and D are similarly doubled and ungrammatical in standard English. Alternative correct form: "The config file has no unused variables" — here "no" pairs with an affirmative verb ("has"), which is also correct; the rule is one negative per clause, expressed either as a negated verb + "any", or an affirmative verb + "no".
3 / 5
Which of these is a rare but grammatically correct case where two negatives are intentional and do NOT count as an error?
"This solution is not uncommon" is a genuine, standard, grammatically correct double negative — but it works completely differently from the errors in the other options. This is litotes, a deliberate rhetorical device where "not" + a negatively-prefixed word ("un-common") produces a careful, understated positive meaning ("fairly common, though I don't want to overstate it"), not accidental cancellation or emphatic stacking. It is a single, controlled negation pattern ("not" + one negative-prefixed adjective), fundamentally different from stacking two separate negative words in the same clause ("didn't... no", "doesn't... never", "isn't... nothing" — all genuine errors in the other options, examples of non-standard negative concord). Distinguishing rule: litotes uses exactly one grammatical negation plus one lexically negative word for a specific rhetorical effect; negative concord errors stack two full negative markers that a listener would otherwise expect to cancel.
4 / 5
A support ticket response says: "I couldn't reproduce the issue with none of the test accounts." What is the standard-English fix?
"I couldn't reproduce the issue with any of the test accounts" is correct — replacing "none" with "any" once the verb is already negated ("couldn't"), the same fix pattern as the config-file example. Option B removes the negation from the verb entirely, which changes the meaning to the opposite of what was likely intended (implying the issue WAS reproduced with zero accounts — confusing and not the intended message). Option C adds a third negative, compounding the error rather than fixing it. Support/bug-report tip: this exact pattern ("couldn't reproduce with none/no") is one of the most common negative concord errors in bug reports and support tickets from non-native speakers — always check that only one true negative (the verb OR the quantifier, not both) survives per clause.
5 / 5
Which quantifier correctly completes: "The migration script hasn't caused _____ downtime so far"?
"Any" is correct: "hasn't caused any downtime" — a negated verb ("hasn't") paired with the non-negative quantifier "any", the standard construction. "No" and "none" (options A and B) would each create a double negative when paired with the already-negated verb "hasn't" ("hasn't caused no downtime"), triggering the same negative concord issue seen throughout this set. Option D is nonsensical, stacking three negation markers. Full pattern to internalize for status updates: "X hasn't caused any downtime" (negated verb + any) is equivalent in meaning to "X has caused no downtime" (affirmative verb + no) — choose one pattern per sentence, never mix a negated verb with a negative quantifier in the same clause.
What will I practise in "Avoiding Double Negatives (Negative Concord) in Technical English — Grammar Exercise"?
Practise avoiding negative concord errors like "doesn't have no" by pairing negated verbs with any/none correctly in bug reports and status updates. 5 exercises.
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 5 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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Articles explain grammar rules in prose; this exercise tests and reinforces those rules through active recall with immediate feedback — the two work best together.
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Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.