"ain't"

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

can you show me the using of " ain’t"? can we use it in past tense?

2

Ain’t can be used to replace all negative aux, in my opinion and to my knowledge

3

You are misleading the learners, BS.

Ain’t = 1. Am not. 2. Used also as a contraction for are not, is not, has not, and have not.

4

But can we use it in past tense? Ex: I ain’t happy during the party yesterday.

5

Could you tell me the source? I dont really use this much

6

I don’t think so, Savdasam. You can check it up with a dictionary.

7

Hi Savdasam,

To start with, ‘ain’t’ is considered bad grammar although it is used in a humorous way by people who know it is bad grammar. It is a contraction for all personal pronouns (singular and plural) with the verb ‘be’ and only in the present tense. Your example:

doesn’t work.

Alan

8

Haihao was right about the ways ain’t is used.

When ain’t is used instead of ‘am not’, ‘are not’ or ‘is not’, then it is used as the present tense of the verb ‘be’ (negated).

However, ain’t is also sometimes used to mean ‘has not’ or ‘have not’. In this case, ain’t is used to form the present perfect tense of another verb. For example, in the following sentence ain’t is used to form the present perfect of the verb ‘see’:

  • I ain’t seen him since yesterday. = I haven’t seen him since yesterday.

Although the word ain’t has been in use for a long time, it is not standard, and people who use it often are frequently viewed as being poorly educated.
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9

After consulting some sources, I get to know that ain’t is just used for replacing present tenses’ auxiliaries. But this makes a suspicion. If it is just used by uneducated men, why does it still have such rules?

10

Thank you for all your explanations. Actually i really want to know if " ain’t " can be use in the past tense; now i understand. My statement “I ain’t happy during the party yesterday.” isn’t correct. Right, Blue_Snow, i see " ain’t " is frequently used in the song lyrics, " i ain’t the same, there ain’t anything that i can do…"

11

Hi Savdasam,

Let’s make it clear, ‘ain’t’ is only present either present simple or used as an auxiliary with the present perfect and isn’t used in a past tense.

Alan

12

Song lyrics are notorious for ignoring rules of grammar. :slight_smile:

13

Thanks for introducing the tpoic. Very usedful. I didn’t know the usage as well.