Learn English – Alternative for “couldn’t not help”

double-negationgrammaticality

Given a sentence like:

I couldn’t not help him right?

I was wondering if that sentence was grammatically correct, and even if it is, what better way is there to rephrase it? Because as it stands, it’s “I could not not help. . . .” and it doesn’t seem grammatically correct although it may be.

Best Answer

These are more compact:

could not but help him

Calendar of State Papers: Foreign Series, of the Reign of... Great Britain. Public Record Office

I declared to him her Majesty's manner of proceeding for a league of the princes of Germany, professing Christian religion, against the Pope, and desired his advice on the matter, which could not but help him; and made him acquainted with the articles of it

couldn't but help him

Pioneer Years in Belize- Page 42 Gerhard S. Koop - 1991

Since he had served us once as a taxi driver after one of us had surgery and required a return trip to Spanish Lookout, we couldn't but help him. We arrived at Klaas Reimers at 5 p.m. Here we met with the sorrowing parents.

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