Double negation "does not any"
I understand that any has negative connotations, as can be seen in the above link, but I need to say that there are no pages in a book. I've come up with the following sentence:
That book does not have any pages.
Is this a correct way to say that there are no pages in that book? It seems to be a double negation, with does not and any, so that would seem to mean that the book does have pages. Should I use a different word to any?
Solution 1:
That isn't double-negation, that's single negation. Double-negation would be this:
That book does not have no pages.
Sentences like the above are correct in many languages and are used in many non-standard forms of English, but are not correct in standard English.
You may be confused by the word any, which is a negative polarity item. The word any is not itself a negative, but it is required in place of no or some when the main verb is negative.