??修改点评：你在写作中会运用“两层否定”吗？假定会，那么你认为你真的会用两层否定吗？尽管许多用法在往常口语中并无不对，但在正式英语中，却会致使不必要的误解。

My last post referred to confusing multiple negatives. This one looks at the common grammatical problem of double negatives.

Have a look at this example:

来看一下这个例句吧：

WRONG差错

This Escrow Account Agreement expires if no money is not credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June.

假定在6月30日之前没有钱被存入第三方保管账户，该第三方保管账户协议即告截止。

Although this grammatical construction is correct in many languages, it is not correct in English. It was, however, common usage several centuries ago, and it still exists in colloquial English now. This explains well known examples such as “I can’t get no satisfaction” and “We don’t need no education”. But it is not correct in formal written English.

尽管这种语法规划在许多言语中都是正确的，但在英语中却是错的。可是，在许多个世纪早年，这种用法非常常见，而在今日的英语口语中，也仍然存在。这说明了一些有名的比方，比方“I can’t get no satisfaction 我得不到满足”以及“We don’t need no education 咱们不需要教育”。但在正式的书面英语中，这并不是正确的。

The grammatical concept is called “negative concord”. In languages that have negative concord, such as Spanish, Polish and Hungarian, the double negative intensifies the negation. However, in languages that do not have negative concord, such as Standard English and German, a double negative is understood to resolve into a positive.

这种语法概念叫做“否定调和”。在有否定调和的言语中，比方西班牙语、波兰语和匈牙利语，这种两层否定会加剧否定。可是在那些不具有否定调和的言语中，比方标准英语和德语，两层否定会构成必定。

So the above example technically means:

所以那句例句实践上意味着：

This Escrow Account Agreement expires if money is credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June.

假定在6月30日之前有钱被存入第三方保管账户，该第三方保管账户协议即告截止。

In reality, of course, it is unlikely anyone would understand it this way, as it wouldn’t make any sense. But the sentence should be corrected as follows:

在实际中，当然，不会有啥人会这样了解它的，因为这样毫无意义。可是这句话仍是大约被改成这样：

RIGHT正确

This Escrow Account Agreement expires if no money is credited to the Escrow Account by 30 June 2013.

假定在2013年6月30日之前没有钱被存入第三方保管账户，该第三方保管账户协议即告截止。