Double negatives involving adverbs

Words such as no and not are obvious negations. There are some negations that are not as obvious, and are thus considered subtle negatives. Be careful when using the following adverbs implying negation:

Hardly

Scarcely

Barely

Sentences using these words are at a greater risk of being combined with another negation because they are not as obvious. Consider the following examples:

Double Negative: I hardly have none.

Correction: I hardly have any.

Double Negative: The football players never scarcely had personal time.

Correction: The football players scarcely had personal time.

Double Negative: I barely got no sleep last night.

Correction: I barely get any sleep last night.

Therefore, it is good practice to avoid certain quantifiers such as less, few and not much. These quantifiers can also be considered a double negative when used with a particular adverb. Considered the following examples:

Again, the best way to avoid subtle double negatives is to consider the context of the clause as a whole.