what's "aint" means?

[Adryansyah]

I usually found the "aint" word in songs lyric, movie's dialog etc. But I don't actually understand what that's mean. Thanks before :)

[emsr2d2]

I usually found the "aint" word in songs lyric, movie's dialog etc. But I don't actually understand what that's mean. Thanks before :)

It means "is not", "am not" or "are not" depending on the word that comes before it. It's very popular in song lyrics and you'll hear it on TV and films but my advice is don't use it! It is seen as completely incorrect by some, "common" (ie lower class) by some, uneducated by others, rude by some people. You get the idea.

You'll hear it and now you know what it means but don't use it.

[TheParser]

I usually found the "aint" word in songs lyric, movie's dialog etc. But I don't actually understand what that's mean. Thanks before :)

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


I ain't coming. = I am not coming.

You ain't a friend. = You are not a friend.

It ain't Friday. = It is not Friday.

Ain't you coming? = Aren't you coming?

Ain't you ever seen that? = Haven't you ever seen that?

***

In the United States, the word ain't is considered by most people to be a

sign of uneducated people. Educated people do use it occasionally when

they wish to be humorous or very relaxed in speech:

Tom: Jim is lucky to have Mona for his wife.

George: Ain't that true!

***

If you used it at the university, I think that most professors would have a heart

attack. In other words, avoid it -- unless you wish to be humorous, relaxed, or

maybe sarcastic:

Sue: Are you coming to my party?

Calvin: No, I ain't! Your parties are so boring.

[Adryansyah]

Now it's clear to me. Thanks :)

[Tdol]

In the United States, the word ain't is considered by most people to be a

sign of uneducated people.

In BrE, it was used in the past by many members of the upper classes, who were happy to break many rules of grammar, and it was the middle classes who looked down on it. Today, it is widely used in informal and colloquial language, but it would be wrong to use it in almost all language learning contexts, especially exams.

I was taught not to use it, but I do use it colloquially as I like it. However, I would never use it in the classroom unless a question about its usage came up.

[BobK]

I usually found the "aint" word in songs lyric, movie's dialog etc. But I don't actually understand what that's mean. Thanks before :)

ain't means any of these: [I] am not, [I]'m not, [he/she/it] is not, [he/'she/it] isn't, [he/she/it]'s not, [we] are not, [we]'re not, [you] are not, [you]'re not, [you] aren't, [they] are not, [they] aren't, [they]'re not. It's a pretty tempting shortcut, useful in ELF, but considered lazy, ignorant, or uneducated in some circles (as others have said), so to be avoided in exams!

b

PS - got the acronym wrong - I meant 'English as a Lingua Franca' ( English used as a means of communication between two non.native speakers).

[emsr2d2]

I usually found hear the word "aint" word in songs lyric song lyrics, movie's dialog movie dialogues etc but I don't actually understand what that's mean it means. Thanks before in advance. :)

I've just done some corrections to your original post. See above. Your title should have read "What does ain't mean?"

[BobK]

...Your title should have read "What does ain't mean?"

In the OP's defence, although the s is just wrong, s/he may have heard the question as 'What's it mean?'. The voicing of the s from 'does' gets lost (assimilating to the /t/ of 'What'), and I imagine most people who have learnt this by ear aren't aware of the 'does' which is implicit in the question 'What's it mean?' I mean, it's a reasonable (though wrong) assumption that the full question is What is it mean?

b

[emsr2d2]

In the OP's defence, although the s is just wrong, s/he may have heard the question as 'What's it mean?'. The voicing of the s from 'does' gets lost (assimilating to the /t/ of 'What'), and I imagine most people who have learnt this by ear aren't aware of the 'does' which is implicit in the question 'What's it mean?' I mean, it's a reasonable (though wrong) assumption that the full question is What is it mean?

b

I'm quite happy with that defence, but the title question ended with the word "means", not "mean". Had it said "What's ain't mean?" I would probably have left it alone.

[BobK]

I was going to add this to my PS in my first note (http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...tml#post796060), but feared it might be thought a bit unprincipled - given that TheParser might no longer feel he 'liked' it!

To take one example, one NNS knows that 'you are can be abbreviated to 'you're' but doesn't know that in this case the /u:/ becomes /ɔ:/ - they have always said /ju:ǝ/ [as some native speakers do]; when the other NNS correctly says /jɔ:/ the first NNS hears it as 'your', and the communication breaks down. "You ain't" avoids that problem. As a teacher, I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending its use, but I recognize that in the right contexts it can be a very useful word. )

b