Sans rien

Question

Sans rien - “without nothing“. In English this would be a double negative and would therefore theoretically mean “with something”.  But in French would we always say “sans rien” or could we also say “avec rien”?

Accepted Answer

Hi Paul, 
Correct me if I am wrong but I always thought that
sans rien 
would be
without  anything 
in English 
meaning -
with nothing added to it?
You would not say 'avec rien' in French.
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

French is full of double negatives. In fact, the standard way of negating something is by doing it twice: ne..pas, ne..jamais, ne..rien. So sans rien shouldn't be too much of a surprise.