Very few people seldom do.
Hi everyone!
Tonight, I came across this sentence which I could not understand.
You can say that, but very few people seldom do.
It's supposed to mean something like "Most people don't do that", but to me, it means exactly the opposite. How it can mean "most people don't do that" is over my head.
Isn't this a double negation? Is it a expression you are familiar with? Is it something common to say? What does it mean?
Thank you in advance!
18 Answers
I think it's a horrible sentence; it may be grammatically viable but I don't think it expresses what the speaker intended.
I'm not sure I can explain why, but look -
If one says "but very few people seldom do", it surely means (literally) the same as ..."but many people frequently do", when what I think the speaker hopes to impress upon the person they are addressing is "It would be rare for anybody to say this/people generally don't say this."
Taking a slightly different example:
"Very few people seldom brush their teeth".
That surely means that most people brush their teeth often.
If one wants to give all of the information, ie that there are few people who brush their teeth, and those that do, seldom do it - I don't think a valid shortcut exists.
It does seem like a double negative in the aspect that it actually doesn't mean what the speaker intends. even though from context we may as native speakers be able to make sense of it.
Hope that helps. 
You can say that, but very few people do....... and even then only seldom.
The way they have it worded is really silly and shouldn't be worded like that.
The sentence is wrong sounding because "Seldom " is superfluous"
take away that word and it is fine .
Hi Cogu
This a great question but do you realise why? I am willing to bet that the majority of native English speakers here had to read the phrase more than once before offering a response. So it is no wonder that you were confused.
Edit:
For my part I only had to read it once.
I found it too difficult to answer so I moved onto the next question.
Few people and seldom are somewhat logically overlapping limiters.
I won't repeat what most have said so well on this thread, but it reminds me a bit of the way the famous Yogi Berra expressed himself.
Yogi Berra, the famed New York Yankees' catcher, once said “90 percent of baseball is half mental."
I agree with those who say it sounds wrong, it is a clunky sentence. It may be grammatically correct, but it doesn't make a lot of sense. Another way to state the same thing would be:
You can say that, but very few people seldom do.
You can say that, but very few people "hardly ever" do.
Better:
"People almost never say things like that".
"Hardly anyone talks like that."
Consensus:
The sentence is clumsy, it sounds much better without the word seldom. Otherwise, it sounds confusing.
¡Muchas gracias a todos!
Hi Cogu When I read the title of the thread I thought "huh? who said that?". I think that it sounds really awkward but ... we all say these kinds of things from time to time even in our own language, right?
Yogi Berra, the famed New York Yankees' catcher, once said “90 percent of baseball is half mental."
I love that 
I wouldn't say that it is a double negative, but it certainly is an oddly constructed sentence which is at best ambiguous and at worst is so obfuscated that it takes away from the idea it was meant to express.
Breaking the sentence down you have:
?Very few people do ? A small number of people do
?How often does this small number of people do it? They seldom do it
So in essence, a small number of people perform this action on rare occasions.
The reason this phrase might come off as ambiguous is because of the inferences that might be made given such a statement. For example, if a small number of people do it infrequently, does that mean that (a) the larger proportion of the population do it more frequently or that (b) they never do it?
I agree that this could probably be said a lot more clearly with something like:
You can say that,...
...but very few people ever do.
...but it's rare to find anyone who does.
...but you're not likely to find many people who will.
...but most people don't.
...but there are not many people who do.
etc.
You can say that, but very few people seldom do.
I can't agree with Julian - the above sentence is odd indeed but it is not a double negative.
To understand it one has to say it in another way.
You can say that - but very few people do - and then only rarely - or - and then not often.
Cogu, It is an expression used a lot here in Ireland. So unless you are coming to visit me, I don't think you will here it much. But at least now you have learned it 
Lose "very few". This is an unusual error for a native speaker to make. "People seldom do" means they rarely/almost never do. That renders "very few" redundant.
These sentences have very similar meanings" Very few people do"
"People seldom do." It's pointless doubling the same meaning hence my use of the term "redundant".
It suggests that the individual was a confused person, maybe stoned?
Well seldom = rarely, so it's not negative.
Very few people seldom do = most people usually do.
It's not a mistake grammatically but it's probably not what the person meant to say.
You can say it but..
few people do.
people seldom do.
I don't know where you found this, Cogu but I am wondering if the writer was trying to find the best sentence construction to express the thought and didn't edit it carefully before sending. Because either of the following sound o.k.;-
You can say that, but very few people do.
You can say that, but people seldom do.
In other words this clumsy sentence is in my opinion a "typo".
Eddy said:
This a great question but do you realise why? I am willing to bet that the majority of >native English speakers here had to read the phrase more than once before offering >a response. So it is no wonder that you were confused.
Spot on there Eddy! I read it a couple of times before the penny dropped.
Cogu:
The fact that you are even asking these questions shows how much your English has improved! Muy bien amiga mia 
By the way, the idioms (in England anyway)..... 'spot on' = 'you are correct, I totally agree'.
'the penny dropped' = 'to understand, ie I belatedly understood what others may have already known'
Take care
