Loving vs Lovin

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starfish03

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Hello! I need your help.
Loving vs Lovin - What's the difference?
Tks.
 

Raymott

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The first is an English word. The second isn't - though you might see lovin' in songs, etc. Note the apostrophe, which means the end has been left off.
Similar answers apply to goin', comin', havin', etc. Know about it, but don't do it.
 
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Yes. This sort of clipping is common in 'text speak' as well, this is fine in text...I suppose, but not in standard English please!
 

probus

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I am speaking about pronunciation rather than writing, as I suspect was the OP.

In AmE ...in' as opposed to ...ing tends to correlate with poverty and lower socio-economic status. But I believe the reverse is true in BrE: speakers of the RP tend to prefer ...in' over ...ing.

Of course I may be wrong about the BrE.
 
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emsr2d2

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I'm afraid that is nonsense about RP. When I was growing up, many people thought that omitting the final "g" from any word ending "-ing" was an indicator of a lack of education or even of stupidity. Some people still think that but I don't think the opinion is quite so prevalent. Having said that, at job interviews and at formal occasions, I always recommend pronouncing all words in full.
 

probus

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Apparently my information was out of date by about a century :-D
 

Tdol

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'Untin', shootin' and fishin' were once posh pronunciations, but a very long time ago, when the upper classes didn't care about the niceties of language, which they, apparently, left to the middle classes.
 
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