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Bookmark or Share- "won't" vs. "wouldn't" - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeAs Kieren has commented, won't is short for will not whereas wouldn't is short for would not. They're not interchangeable. e.g. you wouldn't write I won't do that if I were you, you'd write I wouldn't do that if I were you. If you're not going to be at a party you might write I won't be there and not I wouldn't be there.
- differences - Are the expressions: "You needn't" and "You don't need to ...Needn't and don't need to. There is also a difference in use when these verbs are used to describe present situations. We can use both needn't and don't need to to give permission to someone not to do something in the immediate future. We can also use need as a noun here: You don't need to water the garden this evening. It's going to rain tonight.
- "He doesn't" vs "He don't" - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeWhether you should use doesn't or don't depends on whether the subject is singular or plural: He doesn't speak French. They don't speak French. Although used in movies and songs, "he don't" is still a grammatical mistake. It is often made in Ebonics, accents from the American states "in the South", and is very common in accents from languages ...
- Idiom/phrase which means "to pretend not to understand or know"It was many years before it dawned on me that the related Australian Don't come the raw prawn usually has more the sense of "I am not stupid, so don't treat me as if I am", where the innocent version means "I know you are not stupid, and I'm not prepared to treat you as if you were".
- "Do you not" vs. "Don't you" - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeMy sense is that American English prefers "don't" and "do you not" is a speech act with a peculiar meaning: "I am now interrogating and instructing you" in a Socratic fashion. On the other hand, "do you not" is fairly common Canadian usage with raising intonation on the 'not.'
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