Hi
Did you ever use the contraction mayn’t for ‘may not’?
Yes,
I saw people use this rare short form, especially on newspaper. However, I never use this form.
K
PS: If you read “U.S. News and World Report”, you will see that. Each day, I read only a little before start working.
Hi Tamara,
Mayn’t is a bit quirky, in a way quite precious. I would only use it in a comical jocular way.
Alan
Hi Tamara
This American (me ;)) has never in her life said or written the word mayn’t — until just now :lol:— and I can’t recall having heard other people use it, either.
Like Alan, if I were to ever actually use it, it would only be in a joking way.
Amy
I have used mayn’t many times before, but when I do so, it’s usually with an upper-class British accent and one pinky in the air. So, like Alan and Amy, I use it only when I’m joking.
Tamara, I’ve never met such a contracted form of may not. :oops: So in my jokes I’ll tend to use this form. :lol: :lol:
.
Tamara, don’t keep us in suspense! :shock: :lol:
Have you heard this contraction used in your neck of the woods? Or did you run across it in an ancient novel perhaps? Or were you just trying to think up possible contractions? :lol:
Amy
Hi
Yes, I’ve met the form in an A. Cristie’s story.
To be more specific,
© The Plymouth Express
The phrase I quoted is “said” by the Honourable 
Mrs Rupert Carrington. Pure American :lol:
Yes, the “upper class” - of that ancient time.
I myself also never heard it from real people
But as my surroundings is/are not all-English-speaking-world – I just asked you.
By the way, the form mightn’t I’ve heard really – more than once or twice. And it was used not for joke.
Hmm…
OK.
Thank you all,
Tamara
Ahhhh! Thank goodness! The mystery is solved! (But, don’t forget, those “pure American words” were written by a Brit.) :lol:
Yes, I had heard tell that mightn’t is used in the UK. But mightn’t is another contraction that I myself don’t use and have never used. 
Amy
=> What is the part of speech of ‘tell’ in your sentence, Amy? I find the syntax a bit strange, could you please give me another example? - thank you so much
To “hear tell” is folksy slang, and it just means, “I have heard people say that…”
“I hear tell you’re fixing to leave town.”
“So you’re okay? I heard tell you were in an accident.”
“I hear tell you’re gunning for me, outlaw!”
You hear this expression a lot in the American south, and in cowboy movies. It’s not used in formal English, and I don’t think there’s anything complicated about the syntax. The two words just stay right next to each other.
I think I would take “tell” in “heard tell” as an infinitive.
The word “hearsay” derives from a phrase “by hear say”, which translates the Old French phrase “par ouïr dire” (i.e. “by” + two infinitives, “hear” and “say”); I would speculate that “hear tell” has the same structure. (Cf. also “entendre parler de”, “to hear about”, in modern French.)
MrP
=> What’s the difference between the two versions ‘to leave town’ and ‘to leave the town’, Jamie? (I thought except in idioms, all singular countable nouns must be accompanied by an article)
I don’t think it very complicated either, Jamie. I can understand what it means, but I just found the syntax a bit strange as I had never seen it
Hi MrP
That’s why I find the syntax strange: 2 verbs next to each other without any link (and I also guessed it’s not used in formal English) By the way, is ‘hear say’ popular in British English, MrP?
The main difference is that we say “leave town” but we don’t say “leave the town”.
“Leave town” is a fixed expression, so you need to swallow it whole.
“Hearsay” (one word) is common in the formal English of all English-speaking countries. It just means rumors or something someone has heard someone else say. For example, “hearsay evidence” is not admissible in court. The judge won’t allow it to be used.