Where does AIN'T come from and is it bad English?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ก.ย. 2024
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If you think AIN'T is bad English well it ain't necessarily so. In this video you will learn the history of AIN'T and when it's OK to use it in neutral and formal English.
#historyofenglish
#aint
There's just something so "comforting" about "Ain't" to me sometimes. Great video! Thank you!
ain't that the truth. Cheers
It's to the point.
I'm a Cockney from the East End. Ain't and double negatives are second nature to me. And I'm a qualified linguist too. I thought I spoke bad English until I studied linguistics. Then I discovered I spoke a language variation (dialect). Ain't that something! It ain't nothing!
Ha, finally those linguists have started studying the real thing. Oldfashioned people often say "I never learned that, so that is wrong." They were students 40 years ago! They believe in some static truth, like Sir Newton would have never even listened to Mr Einstein. Humbug!
Ain't no river wide enough
Ain't no water deep enough
Ain't no mountain high enough
(To keep me from you, Gideon!)
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. A classic. Thanks
Having been raised by two teachers, we were encouraged to use proper English pretty much since we've been able to speak. We weren't flat-out told NOT to say "ain't" but Mom & Dad made it clear that it wasn't proper English. Not sure where we learned this, but we had "Don't say 'ain't' or your mother will faint and your father will fall in a bucket of paint...." Fascinating video, by the way. Gonna watch it again and put down notes in my new commonplace book (a concept which I only learned about this week).
I had teachers like that growing up. Now, as an English teacher myself, I'm very much in the Descriptive camp and can only shake my head at Prescriptive "grammar-Nazis." It was a stint teaching ESL that really led me there, as it took a lot of wind out of my sails to be required to teach children to use robotic textbook statements that no native English speakers ever use even in formal settings. Language is a means to communicate, and effective language equals effective communication. Very tight rules erode effectiveness. So long as people have the same general foundation they should not be brow-beaten into doubling down on rules. Such things can be the concern of editors, writers etc., which the vast majority of people will never be.
Great idiom, thanks for writing it.
There is no "proper English." English changes all the time.
There was a time that grammar hadn't been invented, most people didn't write, and the English language had gendered words (like Spanish does today) and was more complex than it is today.
We all speak "improper" English. None of us speaks Old English. It evolves.
👵"Why aren't you writing it down Johnny?"
🙎"Ain't got no fu&&ing pen Miss"
👵"No, Johnny, I have no pen, you have no pen, they have no pens"
🤷"So who HAS got the fu&&ing pens then, miss?"
" "'ain't" is bad English" they say. Meanwhile, "aren't I?" as a tag question is completely correct. Fair enough, huh?
Thanks for the video, it explains really important topic. For me "ain't" is one of the most interesting word in English, as it officially doesn't exist, despite the fact that it's used a lot, I mean A LOT, by various people with various backgrounds.
"Aren't I?" is correct because the expression is in the subjunctive mood, which is a fascinating subject in itself and vital to understand in many languages beyond English.
I was always under the impression that "ain't" is only used by commoners and now I know it ain't so. Thanks for enlightening me Gideon !
Well I'm a commoner so it possibly is.
@@LetThemTalkTV I think that came out wrong (from me). sorry !! No intended offence.
@@LetThemTalkTV Didn't the queen once say "One ain't amused"?
Probably not.😂
@@Santoshlv426
No apology needed kiddo.
Your comment was perfectly in good taste !
From Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, USA
**Amn't 😝
I'm 72, Londoner, and I still say amn't. Always have done, can't help it, sounds natural. Mind you, my parents were Irish.
That's interesting. Having been born in Barking, in the fifties, I consider myself an Essex boy, but I spent much of my life living and working in London and can't recall hearing anyone use amn't. To be honest, before watching this video, I didn't know the word existed.
I do believe you but I myself have never heard amn't in London. Is it the Irish influence?
@@eddiehawkins7049It's used in Scotland but I don't know how common it is
@@LetThemTalkTV I wonder if this is linked to its use in Scotland, as stated by @CheeseAlarm.
"I amn't" is quite common in Ireland in my experience.
I'd say "I'm not" is probably more common but I amn't sure.
Dude, you have won me over! I love your style, your wit, and the substance of your discussion. This is the best use of the Internet.
it's great, ain't it?
"Is you are, or is you ain't, that is the Question". Shakespeare already said so..
Indeed.
In the rods of the song: “Is you is or is you ain’t ma baby?”
better yet is yah or aintchuh? 😂 that’s the phrase i grew up hearing in both inner city and rural parts of Texas
"Bbbbbaby you just ain't seen nuthin' yet" - Bachmann Turner Overdrive from the seventies...
Yes, indeed. I had a few more songs to play such as that one but, alas, copyright.
Bachman
@@reppepper You are right. I hit an extra "n". It should have a hyphen too, as in "Bachman-Turner Overdrive". Ain't no other song I can think of with a deliberate stutter in the lyrics. The annoying grammar police on here also don't like "ain't".
@@LetThemTalkTV Copyright is always a problem.
@@gaufrid1956"My Generation" by The Who. "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers." Arguably, "My Sharona" by The Knack.
Elvis ain't the originator of "Hound Dog." That was Big Mama Thornton. Ain't comes from Southern and African American Vernacular English, which is mostly old London English, in my opinion (and that of my Londoner linguist wife).
I love Big Mama Thornton's version.
Gideon, not only are you a scholarly linguist but a discerning music expert and literary critic. I fully agree with you on Bob Dylan (nobel prize winner). Arts and art, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.
We find ourselves in agreement once again. Ain't it so.
I find the differences betwixt “my” English, outside an Anglophone country, and those of Anglophone countries quite fascinating. My friend’s father said: “Ain’t is used when it’s a personal matter ‘thou ain’t going’ means ‘I won’t let thee’, whilst ‘thou aren’t going’ mean ‘thou art grounded/hast no meaning of transportation’.”
Disclaimer: The usage of “thou” is how they spoke; the father was a puritan priest. And I re-integrate it into my speech!
I´m from Finland and we have two languages, Finnish and Swedish. In Swedish we have a word "inte", that works just like "ain't". Surprisingly they more or less sound the same and mean the same. In my honest view this is the same thing going on and probably brought to English from Scandinavian languages.
English has a fair amount of Old Norse content. Arguably, late Anglo Saxon was a creole of AS and Old Norse.
I think it's just a coincidence. This is a proven contraction in English. The way I understand it, "inte" is a negative akin to "not"
Informal swedish have a very similar contraction "är inte" is shortened to "änte" which sound very similar to english ain't but I still think it's just a coincidence. Especially as it was mostly danes and norweigans going to Britain. And they use "ikke" instead of "inte", which leads to a very different contraction in informal speech ( it obviously is pronounced more like 'igge' in danish K, T, and P tend to be more G,D and B in denmark). Also "icke" in swedish is the older more archaic word for "not" as well.
It doesn't mean it is from Norse influence. Old English and Old Norse were very similar and the subsequent developments of both languages showed a lot of mirroring. Same as with German and Dutch. Some changes just seemed to happen across all Germanic languages. The pronouns, adverb and verb declensions involved were mostly English (am, is, have, not) and English didn't need the Norse to tell us how to do word contractions!
"I shall be hungry again to-morrow, shan't I? Ain't I hungry every day?" (says a boy in _The Haunted Man_ by Charles Dickens)
"I an't the least astonished at it in the world, for I have often thought of late, there was nothing more likely to happen" (Jane Austen, _Sense and Sensibility)._ Mrs. Jennings is not surprised by the confirmation of her expectations. However, Miss Steeles (or Misses Steele) are more likely to use some variation of the word "ain't."
Thanks you for the quotes. Dickens used "ain't" hundreds of times.
I never noticed the amn't gap before, and it definitely explains that use of ain't.
I'd never heard of it until I started researching this video.
Very interesting lesson, thank you- from now on I'm going to use "ain't" while chatting with a British friend
that ain't a bad idea.
A few years ago I was in an amateur production of Sheridan's School for Scandal which was written in the 1770's. An American actress (my English background is New Zealand and southeast England) objected to his use of "ain't" , believing it to be incorrect English and too vulgar for the character using it who was quite well-to-do. We kept ain't.
It was very much part of "posh" slang as well as working class slang in the 18th and 19th centuries.
I (of Northern Irish origin) would never consider using "ain't" but do often say other words with "-n't" (short for "not") tagged on to the end.
I have always thought that "ain't" was an American thing, but after listening to this excellent little video have changed my mind. I now feel that the word probably originated in English dialect (quite possibly cockney), made it's way across the atlantic in the Mayflower, where it was adopted while we gradually forgot about it.
Later on we then re-discovered it and began to use it again. This kind of thing has happened many times in the past.
I seriously underestimated the complexity of we use ain’t. Something I’ve noticed about myself now is that I don’t use ain’t when I write but I will use it in speech. Probably because most if my written communication is more formal for work.
Ahhh this is THE video I wanted! You rock.
Thank you Gideon, you ain't no fool 😊
ain't it so!
Very informative and couldn't agree more. My song example for the usefulness of "a'int" was always "Well, imagine if Mick Jagger had sung 'I can not get any satisfaction'. Recently I listened to a teacher of the Italian languange explaining that, in the end, it doesn't matter if some professor sitting on a mountaintop says something is grammatically incorrect when 90% of the population use it in their day to day speech. More generally, "informal speech" can be incredibly useful and beautiful when it's used to convey emotion and conviction as concisely as possible. By the way, we recently visited Croatia on vacation and there is a beautiful island (with Roman roots) there with no vowels at all: Krk.
Sadly, the Rolling Stones' examples were left out: "I guess you know by now, that you ain't the only one" and " Ain't no use".
Many great songs from the stones. I could only give a few examples in the video.
This may be an Americanism, but one of my favorite ain't expressions is "You ain't the boss of me!".
Re: the Welsh use of “tidy”. I’m in Scotland. I recognise that use of “tidy” *and* I’ve heard it used *and* understand that precise use everywhere outside of Wales. 🤷🏻♂️
It's also interesting to see that in AmE, they say "ain't got" rather than "ain't gotten".
We never use "gotten" when possession or obligation is indicated. We never say, "I've gotten two brothers" or "I've gotten to go now." If you can leave it out ("I have two brothers" or "I have to go now") it's always "got." If not ("He shouldn't have gotten away with it"), you may use gotten.
@@angreagach thank you! That makes perfect sense:)
Non-native speaker here...
"If it ain't *broke*..."
vs.
"If it isn't *broken*..."
@@michal.tomczyk You're very welcome!
You missed a couple: "ain't" is also a substitute for "did not" and "had not" in Black American English.
"I ain't ["did not"] go yesterday because I still ain't ["hadn't"] finish(ed) my homework when it was time to leave."
The standard contraction of "am not" is "aren't" as in the question "aren't I?". "Ain't" may be considered a variant of "aren't". "Amn't" and "an't" exist in dialectal and archaic usages.
I’m foreigner and English isn’t my first language. I studied British English at school in Ukraine. I haven’t known about ain’t till 2022 when I began to watch films and series from USA 🇺🇸 and UK 🇬🇧 without translation in my native Ukrainian but using English captions. I’m delighted. English isn’t Latin and English is live language because there a lot of millions people in UK 🇬🇧, USA 🇺🇸, Canada 🇨🇦, Australia 🇦🇺, etc. speak English in different accents and dialects 👍👍👍👍👍
When I was a boy, it was natural to me to say I amn’t and at school the teacher always corrected me. I had to write I am not 50 times when I said I’mn’t (😂😂😂😂)
You were right after all.
Excellent question, I feel very motivated by your explanatory video with Bob Dylan's harmonica. Loving being on your Patreon, closer to the golden-hearted teacher, it's very cool!
I just made a new video for you guys on Patreon even though my camera was broken. The things I do for you guys. It'll be ready tomorrow....probably.
@@LetThemTalkTV it's going to work, the Patreons are waiting
Wow, that was brilliant. I've always wondered where ain't came from. Thanks for that.
In Norfolk we say 'I aren't . . .' I always have to check myself if I'm in a more formal setting and make a particularly effort to say I'm not.
Interesting, I like to hear these regional variations.
Another Norfolk variation is "in't". "If that in't brook dn't fix it."
I am puzzled by the common misuse of "aren't" as in,"I'm invited, aren't I?" Without a contraction, it would be, "I'm invited, am I not?" It would not be, "I'm invited, are I not?" So, why is "aren't" put in there?
This seems to be another substitute for the non-existent "amn't", somehow restricted to that one particular construction.
"Amn't" is still current in parts of Ireland.
Because „Am I not” is completely incorrect, always and in every situation, and the only way putting is „Aren’t I”. Believe it or not
@@jadziajagoda6187 please expand.
Very interesting and I loved the informal presentation style. 'Ain't' appears to have been exported by your compatriots to the US, bypassing us Irish in the process. You can walk up and down a lot of wet streets and boreens (narrow roads) before you'll hear it spoken on the island and then, usually, only in a quote, song lyric or the like. The rather cumbersome 'Amn't' still survives (as is 'Amn't I after telling you?') but it's a relatively rarity in these days and, for all I know, the influence of the internet etc may well bring 'ain't' to our emerald shores, even if its taken the best part of 400 years, and a very round-the-houses route, to do so.
At 9:30, it would be "it's not me you're looking for it" not "it's not I you're looking for" because 'me' is the object, not the subject.
Interestingly, the use of "me" instead of "I" could be considered as an exception to the usual case rule. This exists in French (c'est MOI, not c'est JE). Case exceptions exist in German as well.
Hello, sir. I am a fan of yours. I passed my English exam with flying colours last Friday. It was all about 'Global English, World Englishes, and Globalization'. Your videos helped me a lot. Yes, double negatives exist in 'New Englishes', 'Ain't' as well. Ain't the truth?
😊
Ain't that fantastic. Thanks for you comment.
double negative: Spanish contamination
"Ain't" is a variant of "isn't", without pronouncing the "s". Dropping the "s" was very common in England at one state. Still is, in some parts of England - innit? (or "i'nt it?" in the north).
As a born and bred cockney I was forever having "ain't" being criticised. Slowly I began to reduce my use of it but, even now I find myself stumbling over things like, should it be "It's not" or "It isn't"? LIfe is so much simpler when you just say "It aint" or even "'Tain't"
Use "ain't" and be proud.
I believe that schools have contributed to the confusion by over-guarding for language misuse. "Ain't" is the proper contraction of "am not", just as can't = cannot, and won't = will not. The problem arises when "ain't" is used with a pleural, rather than a singular-form subject. "We ain't" is an example of that. A similar situation can be seen with the use of double-negatives. "I can't, not see it" is perfectly correct, but schools have suggested otherwise. They have, also, failed to explain why they do so. Of course, if one means "I cannot see it", that is a misuse.
I must have been five or six when I coined the contraction "am'nt" in response to a taunt from my brother. "No I am'nt!" I yelled, to the amusement of my mother who saw its grammatical logic, if not its legitimacy.
There's an old expression that was used in the early 20th century in the US - "T'ain't funny, McGee!" I think it might have come from an old radio program. I thought it was amusing how they took "ain't" up a notch to "t'ain't".
I remember I was in school in my last year and I happened to attend a younger classes' lesson. And I remember a teacher told them to say "amn't", which really confused me!
Thank you, I learned quite a bit in this video. I always thought "ain't" was a US thing that gradually spread everywhere through popular songs. Oddly enough, "innit?" seems to be a British thing only, or maybe even more local than that (or perhaps a bit dated?). I've never heard it in Manchester or other cities I've lived in back when I worked in England, except in and around London (and John Constantine uses it a lot in the comic book and British TV series, but not in the Hollywood movie set in NYC, of course).
For "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", the part that I've always wondered about is why it uses "broke" instead of "broken". I've always heard "broke" meaning "out of money", except for this particular saying. That said, "broken" wouldn't work now anyway (pun intended), since it has a similar problem as "literally" or "suspicious" these days, meaning either one thing or its opposite depending on who's talking. In video games especially, I simply avoid using it now: if I just say something is broken, it's impossible to know if I mean it's overpowered or bugged. ^^
Replacing broke with broken wouldn't flow as well I think. Broke is snappy, brokEN is a bit softer
@@FrostyDufour Thanks, I agree but I still wonder if it means that broke used to be interchangeable with broken back when this saying started.
There ain't no reason I ain't joining those who ain't thinking it ain't right to use ain't.
yeah ain't it!
Oh, my, wow!!!! Is that a Dual (United Audio) 1219 turntable at 11:36? Analog perfection for your vinyl.
It ain't mine, I'm afraid.
(An American here...) I had a rather frustrating situation in my youth. I learned when quoting someone not to correct their English... you are quoting their words, not their meaning (the meaning should reveal itself in their own words... this concept has only solidified in my writing since my youth, having studied journalism). But I also learned not to use "ain't" in my writing for school. Still, I was forced into a situation where I needed to quote someone who had used that term... and at the time, I did not know how to spell it. The instructor wouldn't tell me how, and didn't seem to understand my dilemma. I do not remember how I resolved it, but I found the situation very irritating. I think I lost some respect for my instructors as a consequence, although I doubt I showed it.
Very interesting. I ain't bothered by "ain't" as much as my biggest grammatical pet peeve - when people say "less" instead of "fewer".
Love your videos.
Nobody says ain't in Ireland. It"s always amn't as in "No, I amn't going and she isn't either." It sounds like how we pronounce Almond except briefer. 😂
i'm afraid again ain't is a dutch word , we use it to adress a duck . Only in a few cases the duck can replace Ain't it ...
That was another thorough, interesting and useful video! Thanks!
I ain't kiddin' - I always used the word "ain't" instinctively and it always fit in nicely!
Now ain't that something? 🤣🤣🤣
Interestingly, 'Ain't' was very often used by the upper classes and royalty in England in the 18th and 19th century.
English evolves and changes. "Ain't" most certainly is part of the language at this point.
Bob Dylan is an interesting case. He certainly uses "ain't" with frequency but in
Mr Tambourine Man he perhaps surprisingly, avoids it.
Hey Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
I often sing it wrongly using two ain't in these lyrics.
Excellent video by the way! 😊
Yes, I never thought of that. And yet he sang "I ain't gonna work on Maggies farm no more" on the same album. I guess one shouldn't question Dylan's instincts for good song writing.
I was convinced it was "ain't no place I'm going to"
Oh well.
Having said "Oh Well", the line
"I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin" (Fleetwood Mac)
just has to be written.
Aint is perfectly acceptable, I say that as a Serf (south) London born & raised multi-generational English Plonker and Gideon wishing you Shabbat Shalom in advance
What about "intrusive" rhyming "A" in The Times They Are A-Changing? Always dreamt of hearing down in the subway "The doors they are a- closing".
I think that for keeping the poetic rhythm though it has a long history.
"Old Time is still a-flying" (Robert Herrick). Present continuous.
"They've been out a-playing in the garden" (Mary Molesworth). This is not present perfect continuous. This is present perfect, "been" is a lexical (=main) verb, and "a-playing in the garden" is a participial phrase.
"I said 'Do you speak-a-my language?'"
I write ain’t sometimes when I’m chatting in unofficial atmosphere ❤️👍
If the word is good enough for the architect of Blenheim Palace, it's good 'nuff for me, guv'nor.
Hey Gideon.
Hope you are well.
I've listened to the podcast that you did with Monty and I believe you get muddle up when it comes to desert and dessert spelling.
Now, this is how you remember the differences, if it's sweet add an extra S. DeSSert 😋😋
Hope that will help you next time.
Fare thee well for now and stay mellow our kid.
By the way, you look like a matelot with that stripped t-shirt. 😉
Hi Freddie, thank you for that tip about "dessert". That helps. Yet: his shirt ain't stripped ;-) and he hasn't stripped. It rather looks striped.
thanks for the spelling tip
No bother, brother 👌😀
In some parts of Birmingham aint is even reduced further to int.
I love it (or int)
This happens in Norfolk too.
'Ain't got no, I got life', Nina Simone sang. Thank you very much for another tremendously interesting and entertaining video! Following on from this, Gideon, could you perhaps dedicate a topic to the use of ‘got’ alongside ‘have got’ and ‘have’?
Glad you liked the video. I made a video on "got" several years ago. It may be time for an updated version.
You ain’t getting rid of this subscriber any time soon 😊
When I was @ school, we were taught, when doing an Exam (GCE or CSE) if we use the word ain't, we would be marked 'failed'/F, as it was deemed bad/poor English. Later on, when I did an English language Teacher training course, we were again advised to inform the students we were teaching, the same thing, as the main aim was to get the Students to speak proper English. Yet, the word 'ain't- which has been used in the English language for ages, seems to be frowned upon. Why is this the case?
Where I live, “amn’t” seems to have faded away. Or else it’s just wee tots that say it.
We don’t have ain’t, we have in’t, but used in a more restricted way, because we mostly use “am no” (am not) and “amnae” (sounds like the first two syllables in amniotic).
We only really use “in’t” as a kind of tag or question. “That’s nice, in’t it?”
And the negative, “That’s no very nice, in’t it no?”
(That is not very nice, isn’t it not? in full: That is not very nice is not it not?)
Sooo... where do you live?
when told 'ain't' wasn't good English, presumably Bill said "I know, I know, I know, I know . . . ."
as an American I have never heard of amn’t. how interesting! i am kind of amped about learning this actually
I use ain't because l can use it almost as I use "не" (ne) in Russian - universal negation particle. That's how we speak in Russian - all the negation done by one particle that is also the only negation prefix, unlike your un-s, in-s, and um-s. It's intuitive for me to use same thing everywhere where I need negation so I use ain't when I can.
well ain’t that a kick in the head
0:57 Ah yes the folk classic "How Much Is That Donkey in the Window"
Thx. Always wondered about the origin of that word.
My Cockney grandmother said “hain’t”. I’ve heard Amy Winehouse say it in her song, ‘They tried to make me go to rehab’ - “I hain’t got the time”)
I’m curious about the etymology of hain’t. Is it just an affectation?
That's interesting you said that. It almost got included in the video. "Hain't" was an alternative to "ain't" as in "haven't/hasn't". You read it in Dickens amongst others.
"Haint" without the apostrophe is another interesting word common in the Southern US, which is a variation of "haunt", meaning ghost or spirit. Also, look up the color "haint blue" that is popular for painting porches.
My dear Mother once told me "it ain't ain't , it's isn't"
"Faith is believing what you know ain't so." -- Mark Twain.
Americans know the expression, "Say it ain't so, Joe." That was to a very popular baseball player in the 20's who was accused of betting on games.
Another song, "Is you is or is you ain't my baby" a 50's jazzy song by Louis Jordan.
Yes, I knew that. I almost included in the video but I thought it would be going off topic a bit. Thanks for pointing that out.
I'm fond of saying, "I ain't got time for stupid." tavi.
That's rock'n'roll, that video! 👍👍
We must realize the whole point of any language is to be understood by its speakers. So whether you’re an Australian talking about “shrimp on the barbie,” a gen Alpha talking about “skibidi rizz,” or a baby babbling “ma-ma, da-da,” it’s all proper English if the people you are communicating with know what you’re talking about. You’ll get a lot farther in life by understanding the way other people talk than just by understanding standard English.
What about innit, teacher? Have you ever done a video about it? Origin, uses, and all that jazz. I'm pretty sure you would teach us a lot of things and good examples to use it properly. TIA!
When I was a kid we used to say, "You can't say ain't 'cause ain't ain't in the dictionary!"
Shakespeare demolished the double negative with "man delights not me; no, nor woman neither"
…
Shakespeare ain't carin' about none of that grammar nonsense!
I'm from London, one variant of ain't we have is oon't. It's good oon it, oont cha (aren't you). Seem occupy the middle ground between ain't and innit.
Sausages
There are many dialects of the English language because languages evolve. In the case of ain’t a new contraction was born. While one group of English speakers could look down and even criticize another group for using this word it is them who fail to recognize the natural evolution of languages.
"I won a tidy sum" You know that one and it ain't mean "clean".
Three consonants are difficult to pronounce? In German we have a word that has eight (!) consecutive consonants: Angstschweiß.
I will use ain’t like a curse word; for emphasis and dramatic flair
As an East Midlander we truncate further by say ‘in’t’. It’s in’t innit.
7:10 To be fair I think most English teachers acquaint their students with one particular register from the very first lesson: The cash register
Ain't is the CC _the Comodin Contraption_
of the English language.
It ain't be so handy without it.
Scottish people use Amn't very often, in literature too - check out Iain Banks (Iain M. Banks).
Back in the early 70s I wandered across the field of cattle behind my parent's new house in the country to find a countryman leaning on the gate chewing some grass. We had a little chat, during which he said "I can zee you bain't be afeared o dem burllocks" Would that "bain't" be anything to do with "ain't" I wonder?
No phone, no pool, no pets... I ain't got no cigarettes!
Thank you.
You're welcome!
I was once told: "you ain't right." O.K. Maybe more than once.
I rarely hear people using ain’t in the UK though I recall it was more common in the 60s. I don’t know anybody who actually says it now. I have always assumed it to be slang and only used in certain parts of the UK. I grew up in London but now rarely hear many of the local dialects, idioms and accents that were prevalent in the 50s/60s and feel a lot have almost disappeared and been replaced
The claim that Bob Dylan is "arguably the best lyricist of all time" is subjective and depends on one's interpretation of lyrical genius. While Dylan’s work is undoubtedly influential, lyrical mastery predates him by centuries.
William Shakespeare, often hailed as the greatest writer in the English language, crafted complex, poetic texts that captured the breadth of human experience, as seen in lines like “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?”. His command of metaphor, rhythm, and wordplay remains unparalleled.
In the realm of songwriting, composers like Irving Berlin-responsible for timeless classics such as "White Christmas" and "God Bless America"-crafted lyrics that captured both cultural and emotional nuances.
Berlin’s simplicity and universality in lyricism, much like Cole Porter’s witty and urbane wordplay (“Night and Day”), were already setting high lyrical standards in popular music before Dylan’s rise.
Dylan’s folk-inspired, politically charged lyrics are influential in their own right, but he stands alongside a long tradition of lyrical brilliance, rather than singularly eclipsing it. His work adds to the conversation but does not close it.
you must be fun at parties
Gideon’s a boomer and Bob Dylan is considered the greatest lyricist of his generation so it’s not really an issue that someone his age might say that opinion. anyway i’m a millennial and i say Bob Dylan is one of the best lyricists of all time
@@sashwapget eem drunk and watch eem melt down😂
"Ain't" ain't a word, so I ain't gonna' use it!
I never say "ain't". I'm a grammar police officer. You're under arrest.
There is a subject: negative questions.
"Aren't you going to the party?" = "Are you not going to the party?"
If you are NOT going to the party, the answer should be "Yes." (I am NOT going to the party.)
If you ARE going to the party, the answer should be "No." (I am NOT NOT going to the party.)
a Russian who's learning English I used to use AIN'T on the internet excessively till some guy told me not to do so until I'm sure about a context of it's usage. I stopped to use AIN'T at all, as I thought, it makes obvious my Russian residence. Now things have become clear, thanks to you and youtube recommendations!