ain't

I sometimes herd in American Movies.

A black guy saying:

what does
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I ain’t do/no (something)
I ain’t [/size]
mean?

are these phrases ?

Ain’t is a colloquial way of saying: “isn’t”, “aren’t” or “am not”. Though some of our teachers suggested that we should avoid using it as possible as we can unless we want to make ourselves sound as if we were uneducated. :smiley:

There were some heated discussions here and here.

The word ain’t has been in use in English for a long time. It is informal/slangy, so it should not be used in formal writing, for example. In addition, some people will react negatively if you use ain’t since it may suggest to them that you are uneducated.

The word ain’t is used in place of am not, aren’t, isn’t, hasn’t and haven’t. For example, this is a commonly used expression:

  • You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. = You haven’t seen anything yet.

It’s possible that some dialects might also use ain’t to mean don’t and/or doesn’t, but I’m not sure about that.

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[size=75]“The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.” ~ Mark Twain[/size]

Oh, I don’t wanna sound uneducated so I would avoid using ain’t,
thanks :slight_smile:
No offense just curious, I hear ain’t mostly from black guys in American movies, are they uneducated? and they talk like as if they rhyming, it’s so funny to listen, I sometimes imitate how they talk. lol

Learner_2010

Hi Learner,

It’s important to note that I said some people will react negatively, not necessarily all people. However, it is used almost exclusively in very informal, spoken English. Many people hardly ever use the word ain’t – not even in informal spoken English. Others use it more often. This often depends on the region they live in.

I use the word ain’t only very rarely. If I do use it, it’s usually to create some sort of special effect, or it’s in a fixed informal expression (such as the example in my last post).

Trying to imitate what you hear is actually good practice, however it is important to know what sort of thing you are imitating. In other words, it’s important here to know that you shouldn’t use ain’t if your intention is to use standard English. The word ain’t is extremely informal, and it is not necessarily commonly used by all native speakers of English.

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[size=75]“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” ~ Yogi Berra[/size]

Hi Learner,

Also, if you don’t want to seem uneducated, don’t write ‘wanna’.