Ain T | search
Click here to view Ain T news from 60+ newspapers.
Bookmark or Share- Distinguish contraction of "ain't" - English Language & Usage Stack ...Feb 2, 2012 at 9:00. If you mean 'I ain't doing anything', it would mean 'I am not doing anything' because that would be the normal thing to say. If the speaker wanted to express either of the other two it would be necessary to say them in full. The context will almost always show what it is intended. – Barrie England.
- How does "ain't" work? - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeAin't is also used (perhaps more commonly) with an -ing form: (4) He ain't helping me. Generally ain't is used for a negative contraction of a be form, but occasionally it appears also for a negative contraction of a have form, as in (2). (3) is what (2) sounds like at normal speech rates, when /ent'hɛlptmi/ reduces to /en'ɛlpmi/ .
- Usage of "ain't"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange15. Ain't is used as a regular negated form of be or have, and supposedly sometimes do: I ain't no tractor. = I am not a tractor. I ain't got no tractor. = I haven't got any tractor. It's also used like there isn't, by common omission of there from there ain't. Ain't no tractor here. = There isn't any tractor here.
- history - When did "ain't" become slang? - English Language & Usage ...Ain't: Historically, “ain’t” appears to have evolved in the late 1700s from an earlier > - form, “an’t,” which was first recorded in the late 1600s but was probably common in speech early in that century. So let’s start with the earlier form. “An’t” was originally a contraction of “am not” (as in “I an’t going ...
- What does "ain't" mean? - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangePronunciation: \ˈānt\. Etymology: contraction of are not. Quoting @nohat : The common bit of schoolyard wisdom that “ain’t ain’t in the dictionary, so ain’t ain’t a word” turns out to be untrue. Every online dictionary that I’ve ever looked in contained an entry for ain’t. It is a colloquial word, informal, so probably shouldn ...
More
