Ain't

[brimstone11]

1) What is it short for?
2) How is it spelt? Ain't or aint :P
Thanks

[Ouisch]

It's short for either "am not" or "are not", depending upon the context. Correct spelling is "ain't."

And, of course, despite its very common and frequent usage, it's still considered incorrect grammar.

[brimstone11]

Originally Posted by Ouisch

It's short for either "am not" or "are not", depending upon the context. Correct spelling is "ain't."
And, of course, despite its very common and frequent usage, it's still considered incorrect grammar.

How about 'is not', 'have not' and 'has not'?

[matilda]

ain't is the short form of BE+NOT
and i'm not sure if it can be used instead of HAVE/HAS+NOT
but it is not grammatically correct.

[Tdol]

It can be used for all persons of be (I ain't going, you ain't going, etc) and for have/has (I ain't done it, he ain't done it, etc).

[matilda]

dear tdol

this post DOESN'T mean that you are not right. but one of my teachers told me that we CAN NOT use ain't instead of have/has. does this site have a forum mentioning this rule?

thanks
Matilda

[Tdol]

If you have a look at these Google results, you'll see that ain't + past participle, many of which will be replacements for 'have' is common, and used in British and American English:

http://www.google.com/search?hs=Pvj&...22&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hs=cvj&...22&btnG=Search
(Try scrolling through some of the back pages away from the first page)

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by matilda

... one of my teachers told me that we CAN NOT use ain't instead of have/has.

Here are two utterances I have said:

"ain't" instead of "haven't"
EX: I ain't seen you in a while. <I haven't seen you in a while.>

"ain't" instead of "don't"
EX: They ain't got my size. <They don't have my size.>


In addition,

From Take Our Word For IT
http://www.takeourword.com/arc_logi.html#ain't
[ain't] has also been used, since 1845, to mean `have not' and `has not.'

From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=ain't
Main Entry: ain't
1 : am not : are not : is not
2 : have not : has not
3 : do not : does not : did not

Hope that helps.

[Tdol]

Given that it's a non-standard form, it shouldn't really be expected to behave according to the rules.

[Casiopea]

Oh, but ... it follows. It follows. It's a generic contraction that regularized, starting with 1st person singular BE, then 2nd and 3rd, then all persons and numbers BE, then moved on to the other two major auxiliaries, HAVE and DO.

ain't
1706, originally a contraction of am not, and in proper use with that sense until it began to be used as a generic contraction for are not, is not, etc., in early 19c. Cockney dialect of London, popularized by representations of this in Dickens, etc., which led to the word being banished from correct English.

Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?...earchmode=none