Unless

[sania-baharat]

Hello teachers,

I am wondering why the writer suggestd negative verb here. We have to use positive verb with unless.
If you study hard, you will pass the course; unless doesn't like the teacher you.

 

[Raymott]

Your example sentence doesn't make sense. You probably mean, " - unless the teacher doesn't like you".
The negative verb is appropriate in the sentence. Perhaps the writer was not attempting the same exercise as you are.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello teachers,

I am wondering why the writer suggested a negative verb here. We have to use a positive verb with unless. Who told you that?

If you study hard, you will pass the course; unless the teacher doesn't like you. [strike]the teacher you.[/strike]

See above.

 

[sania-baharat]

You probably mean, " - unless the teacher doesn't like you".

Yes.
Sorry. I made bad mistake.

 

[sania-baharat]

See above.

I fellow the link below. A teacher in this link insisted that we only use unless in positive sentences.
https://www.engvid.com/english-grammar-negative-conditional/

 

[Raymott]

If he says that, he's wrong. If he insists on it, he's even more wrong. (I'm not going to watch the whole video and it's a long page. If you want to point out exactly where he says this, I might be able to explain better.)
In any case, you can use a negative clause after 'unless'.

 

[sania-baharat]

The teacher said that it would be double negtive, so it was worng to use negation in unless clause.
Now can we say "You will succeed, unless you don't study hard." ?
Could you please give me some expmels that use unless in the negative clause when it means "if ... not"

 

[Raymott]

The teacher is simply wrong, or you have misunderstood him.

No, I'm not sure what you mean by 'unless' followed by a negative clause meaning "if ... not". I'm not sure what you mean by "if ... not". Could you provide a full sentence which includes "if ... not" to illustrate what you mean? Alternatively, you could a more concise reference (ie, mins:secs in the video) of where you think he claims that you can't follow 'unless' with a negative clause.

PS: Yes, you can say "You will succeed, unless you don't study hard." It's awkward phrasing, but it's not wrong.

OK, here's one example, though I think it would be difficult to learn this way:
"You will succeed [unless you don't study hard.]" = "You will succeed [if it is not the case that you don't study hard.]" Note that you would not use the second sentence even though it's technically grammatical.

'Unless' is usually defined as "except if", not "if ... not".
"You will succeed [except if you don't study hard.]"

 

[emsr2d2]

You can use positive + unless + positive: You will keep gaining weight unless you go on a diet.
You can use negative + unless + positive: You won't lose weight unless you go on a diet.

Raymott came up with a couple of awkward examples of positive + unless + negative but, as he said, we wouldn't actually use them.

For two negatives, we would use "if", not "unless": You won't lose weight if you don't go on a diet.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, but the main point I've been making is that 'unless' + a negative clause can be grammatical, normal, and not awkward, as in the original "If you study hard, you will pass the course - unless the teacher doesn't like you."
Piscean has given "... unless you don't want to."
The OP is asking whether 'unless' + a negative clause is valid. I think we've all agreed that it is.