_quite_, also requires care and thought.

EXERCISE 25

_Correct the errors in the location of adjectives and adverbs in
the following sentences:_

1. I only paid five dollars.
2. I have only done six problems.
3. The clothing business is only profitable in large towns.
4. The school is only open in the evening.
5. I only need ten minutes in which to do it.
6. He had almost climbed to the top when the ladder broke.
7. I never expect to see the like again.
8. A black base-ball player's suit was found.
9. Do you ever remember to have seen the man before?
10. The building was trimmed with granite carved corners.
11. People ceased to wonder gradually.
12. The captain only escaped by hiding in a ditch.
13. I never wish to think of it again.
14. On the trip in that direction he almost went to Philadelphia.
15. Acetylene lamps are only used now in the country.
16. He only spoke of history, not of art.
17. I know hardly what to say.
18. I was merely talking of grammar, not of English literature.
19. The girls were nearly dressed in the same color.
20. He merely wanted to see you.

46. DOUBLE NEGATIVES. _I am here_ is called an affirmative statement.
A denial of that, _I am not here_, is called a negative statement.
The words, _not, neither, never, none, nothing_, etc., are all
negative words; that is, they serve to make denials of statements.

Two negatives should never be used in the same sentence, since
the effect is then to deny the negative you wish to assert, and
an affirmative is made where a negative is intended. _We haven't
no books_, means that we have some books. The proper negative form
would be, _We have no books_, or _We haven't any books_. The mistake
occurs usually where such forms as _isn't, don't, haven't_, etc.,
are used. Examine the following sentences:

Wrong: _It isn't no_ use.

Wrong: There _don't none_ of them believe it.

Wrong: We _didn't_ do _nothing_.

_Hardly, scarcely, only_, and _but_ (in the sense of _only_) are
often incorrectly used with a negative. Compare the following right
and wrong forms:

Wrong: It was so dark that we _couldn't hardly_ see.

Right: It was so dark that we _could hardly_ see.

Wrong: There _wasn't only_ one person present.

Right: There _was only_ one person present.

EXERCISE 26

Correct the following sentences:

1. I can't find it nowhere.
2. For a time I couldn't scarcely tell where I was.
3. They are not allo