> 人間では **決して** 勝ちえることのできぬ存在.

In this sentence, how should 決して be translated? My dictionary says this should
be "never" but I'm thinking it should be "able". Otherwise, with the ぬ at the
end, is this a double negative?

"It was an opponent that humanity could not overcome."
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grammar polarity-items
人間では決して勝ちえることのできぬ存在, how to handle 決して?
決して_ない (or other negative conjugations) could be thought of like "absolutely
not" or more literally "decidedly not". It's always used with a negative.

You could interpret this sentence as "An opponent Humans are absolutely
incapable of winning against." It wouldn't be wrong to say "An opponent Humans
are never able to win against." So in that case, 決して could be translated as
'Never' but the negative part is the ぬ at the end making the whole grammar
phrase negative. it isn't a double negative, both ends of the phrase 決して_ない
are working together to make one negative.
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