My question is not very serious, but I'd like to know what the contraction
ain't means. I met it in the song of Chris de Burgh, 'Moonlight
and roses'. 'Tonight there's a band, it ain't such a bad
one / Play me a song, don't make it a sad one.'
You
are right, Julia. 'It ain't' here could be re-written in standard
English as 'it isn't' or 'it's not'.
'Ain't'
is non-standard English, but is quite common in dialects and in
colloquial forms of British and American English. So it is important
to be able to recognise it, but not so important to be able to produce
it in speech or writing. It is used as the contracted form of a
number of different aspects of the verbs and auxiliary verbs 'to
be' and 'to have', so it is quite useful, as you can see. It is
the contracted form of:
It
is often used with a second negative in the same clause, producing
a double negative, which is ungrammatical, but quite normal in this
variety of English:
'You ain't goin' nowhere. You're stayin' right here.'
'I ain't done it yet. No. I ain't 'ad a minute
to meself.' (= myself).
'I ain't Superman.'
'It ain't right for Joan to tell Jane what to do.'
'He still ain't returned that bike. How long's he 'ad
it for now?'
'You ain't finished your supper, Simon. Ain't
you 'ungry, or what?'
'It ain't arf 'ot in 'ere.'
The
standard negative contractions of these two verbs, which you should
be using, particularly in speech and in informal writing, are as follows.
There are quite a few of them, as you can see. Note that he's not
is the standard contracted form for both 'he has not' and 'he
is not'. Note also that 'am not' is normally contracted to 'aren't'
only in questions.
Full
form
Contraction
Example
I
am not
I'm
not
I'm
not going out this evening. I'm staying in.
Am
I not?
Aren't
I?
I'm
too old for this sort of thing, aren't I?
We
are not
We're
not
We're not very happy with plans for tomorrow.
We
are not
We
aren't
We
aren't going to Tom's party after all.
You
are not
You
aren't
But
you're going, aren't you?
You
are not
You're
not
You're
not yet 16. So you're not going clubbing.
They
are not
They
aren't
Those tomatoes - they aren't very red, are they?
They
are not
They're
not
They've
just phoned to say they're not coming to dinner tonight.
He/she
is not
He/she
isn't
He/she
isn't quite ready to take this exam.
He/she
is not
He's/she's
not
He's/she's
not very clever, is he/she?
It
is not
It's
not
It's
not very warm today, is it?
It
is not
It
isn't
It
isn't going to rain, is it?
It
has not
It
hasn't
It
hasn't rained for a long time.
It
has not
It's
not
It's
not been long since I saw you.
He/she
has not
He's/she's
not
He's/she's
not been to work today as he's/she's got a cold.
I
have not
I
haven't
I
haven't seen you for ages. How are you?
I
have not
I've
not
I've
not read that newspaper yet, so don't throw it away.
You
have not
You've
not
You've
not finished your supper, Simon. Aren't you hungry tonight.
You
have not
You
haven't
I
can see you've played this game before, haven't you?
They
have not
They've
not
They've
not been to see Brenda's mother at all since she's been
in hospital.
They
have not
They
haven't
They've
already left, haven't they? The car's not in the drive.
