hellow, friends,
This is the second time I notice this turn of phrase in Tom Clancy's "The Bear and the Dragon". It goes like this:
Like going to a Vegas casino when you're able to read the cards halfway through the deck. You just can't hardly lose this way.
I haven't checked many dictionaries but the ones I checked did not have similar examples. I find this use quite strange. In fact, I would have considered it a simple grammar error if I had seen it in a student's essay.
But since this is not the case, I wonder how frequent it is. I also wonder if this is not some deliberately slangy double negative not dissimilar to 'I don't see nobody'. I also wonder if this is an American thing only... For my part, I just scoffed at it when I saw it for the second time (the first time I thought it was a typo or something...) But then I started thinking about it and now I simply don't know what to make of it (although the meaning is crystal clear).
This is the second time I notice this turn of phrase in Tom Clancy's "The Bear and the Dragon". It goes like this:
Like going to a Vegas casino when you're able to read the cards halfway through the deck. You just can't hardly lose this way.
I haven't checked many dictionaries but the ones I checked did not have similar examples. I find this use quite strange. In fact, I would have considered it a simple grammar error if I had seen it in a student's essay.