何尝【hécháng】

何尝 asks "when ever?" without wanting an answer, so it denies what follows. 我何尝说过 means "I never said that", and says it with some heat. It belongs to writing and to emphatic speech.

何尝不: "how could it not"

Add 不 and the two negatives cancel: 何尝不 is a strong yes. It often grants that you share someone's feeling or that a point applies to you too. 又 usually comes before it, and the sentence ends in 呢 or a question mark.

The sentence can also end in 。, as a statement: "it's not that I don't…".

Reading the sign right

Learners take 何尝不 as a negative. It says the opposite: 我何尝不想去 means "of course I want to go".

• × 我何尝不想去，所以我留在家里 → 我并不想去，所以我留在家里

何曾 is a more literary synonym of 何尝.