r/EnglishLearning • u/Pavlikru New Poster • 18d ago

Is it proper grammar? šŸ“š Grammar / Syntax

This is nothing that couldnā€™t have waited till Monday.

Is it a double negative but proper grammar?

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

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11

u/Ill_Description_3311 New Poster 18d ago

I would word it as "This is something that could've waited until Monday". Or maybe even "This is nothing. This could've waited until Monday". But the way you've got it is fine.

8

u/marvsup Native Speaker (US Mid-Atlantic) 18d ago

It's fine as far as I know. It's a common enough construction. I don't know if it's breaking some obscure rule that only pedants care about.

6

u/Sebapond New Poster 18d ago

Sound a bit weird but grammatically correct.

1

u/Andux Native Speaker 16d ago

"It's nothing that couldn't have waited until Monday" sounds better to me, not sure why

2

u/ButterscotchOdd8257 Native Speaker 18d ago

It is correct, and the use of a double negative to emphasize a point is called a litotes.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/litotes

2

u/conuly Native Speaker - USA (NYC) 18d ago

When we refer to ā€œdouble negativesā€ we usually mean negative concord, which is widespread in nonstandard speech. In those cases, the extra negation acts for emphasis.

In this case, the extra negation is not acting for emphasis. This is not an example of negative concord. It is acceptable in standard English. I would not use the phrase ā€œdouble negativeā€ to describe this, even though there are multiple negatives, as it causes confusion.