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”?

Cécile Janty-Davies · 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!

Chris Wirt · 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.