Am I not? OR Aren't I?

[munchkin2618]

I'm really confused. Today, I read this sample sentence from an English book. --> I am late, aren't I!

What is the explanation to this? Is this correct? I know that I is paired with the be verb AM. But why is the given sentence like that?

[5jj]

'Am I not' is correct, but very formal. The interrogative negative form has long been contracted in speech to /ɑ:nt/, just as the equivalent form for 'can' is produced as /kɑ:nt/, and that for 'shall' as /ʃɑ:nt/. By analogy with 'aren't you', /ɑ:nt/ has come to be written as 'aren't'.

[SoothingDave]

Yes, its correct. It's an exception. You can't say "I are," but you can ask "aren't I?"

You could say "am I not?" but that sounds formal.

[TheParser]

I'm really confused.

[/QUOTE]


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


(1) Me, too.

(2) This is one of those exceptions that learners have to learn. (I guess that there are

exceptions in your language, too. Am I right?)

(3) So we can say:

I am your best friend, am I not? (This answer is very formal and takes three words.)

I am your best friend, ain't I? (In 2012, the word "ain't" is considered by many people

to be a word used only by uneducated people -- or people who want to be humorous.)

I respectfully suggest that you NOT use it. If you do, some (many?) people will lose

respect for you.

I am your best friend, aren't I? (This is the tag question that native speakers have

decided to use.)

P.S. You can always say: I'm your best friend. Right?

[5jj]

BE is the most irregular verb in English - no other verb has so many forms: be, been, being, am, is, are, was, were. But then its equivalents are pretty irregular in many other Indo-European languages. That's just one of those things that we have to live with.

[bhaisahab]

The other posters are right, munchkin2618. Without wishing to confuse you, there are two dialects of English, Irish and Scottish, in which the contraction "amn't I" is very common.

[5jj]

The other posters are right, munchkin2618. Without wishing to confuse you, there are two dialects of English, Irish and Scottish, in which the contraction "amn't I" is very common.

Indeed. I forgot to mention that. We English speakers of English tend to forget the other varieties spoken in the UK (and the Republic).