Page 179 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking
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such as the one following and where they constitute an idiom or well-known
thing (such as the Rolling Stones song “[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction”), double
negatives make you sound uneducated.
One exception is when you are using two negatives to cancel each other out
by working in tandem. They don’t necessarily leave a positive behind, though:
■it’s often more of a neutral. For example: She was not unlovely in her rough
country way. = There was something lovely about her.
■ It was not unheard of for soldiers to sleep in the barn. = It was heard
of.
17.9 Funner and Funnest
Another common myth is that funner and funnest are not real words. They are!
They’re perfectly good English words whose reputation has been besmirched.
Use them if you want, though be warned that some folks will simply refuse to
believe you. For those people, use more fun and most fun. For more, see section
11.2, Comparative and Superlative Adjectives.
17.10 Go Missing
A lot of North Americans bristle at go missing, which is a Briticism that has
traveled back across the Atlantic.
■ He went missing in June and has not been found.
■ My gold watch has gone missing.
■ Won’t my laptop go missing if I leave it unattended?
However, this usage has become so widespread for so long that any complaints
about it now just come out of unexamined habit. Feel free to use it without
reservation.
