Thanks for the replies, everyone.
Vicki - in Greek, the answer would be No as well. There's a linguistic difference, though: There's no 'anything' in the Greek language. There's 'something', and there's 'nothing' (which, incidentally, does NOT contain a negation in its form - only in its meaning).
So this same question, in Greek, and assuming the speaker does not really believe there's something they can do (which is what I was looking for in this case), could be put either as
1)
Isn't there something I can do about it? or
2)
Isn't there nothing I can do about it? (which is not a double negation, because, as I said, 'nothing' does not contain a negation).
Technically, the two mean the same thing and, if there's nothing the speaker can do, the answer they will receive is No.
About which one is going to be used, though, there's a little 'colouring' depending on what the speaker believes. If the speaker believes that there *is* something, maybe something very difficult, or the chances of it succeeding are very slim, but there is something all the same, they'll use 1. If they believe there's nothing but are asking in desperation or just to make sure they covered all bases, they'll use 2.
If the speaker is merely wondering whether there's something they can do, they'll go like in English:
Is there something I can do about it?And that's probably more than you wanted to know
Again, thanks to everyone. My English wouldn't be the same without you FoLCs
See ya,
AnnaBtG.
