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Questions for Jabber

I can not agree more with you on the idea 'follow the way natives speak'. However, sometimes I get confused by the grammaticality. Hopefully I can get some clarification from you.

1. Sometimes people say 'it ain't a smart chocie....' or 'He ain't....' Why 'ain't' is used? What does it actually stand for? 'aren't'?

2. I always hear my co-workers say: there is two things we need to pay attention or there is two people who.... why 'is' is used instead of 'are'?
I understand that when we are talking about 'things as a whole', we may take it a a singular. However, I don't think the above two cases fall into this category easily. Is it informal English? Do people actually write in this way?

BTW, the people I am talking about are well-educated native speakers.
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  • 工作学习 / English / Questions for Jabber
    I can not agree more with you on the idea 'follow the way natives speak'. However, sometimes I get confused by the grammaticality. Hopefully I can get some clarification from you.

    1. Sometimes people say 'it ain't a smart chocie....' or 'He ain't....' Why 'ain't' is used? What does it actually stand for? 'aren't'?

    2. I always hear my co-workers say: there is two things we need to pay attention or there is two people who.... why 'is' is used instead of 'are'?
    I understand that when we are talking about 'things as a whole', we may take it a a singular. However, I don't think the above two cases fall into this category easily. Is it informal English? Do people actually write in this way?

    BTW, the people I am talking about are well-educated native speakers.
    • Not all native English speakers speak and write good English.
      本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛At the last stop of my academic carrer, I bumped into an American professor. He majored Physics at Harvard and got his Ph. D from U Penn. He is very eloquent. Unfortunately, his writing is just a mess. Whenever he writes a paper or a report, the poor secretary has to re-organize his writing. Boldly speaking, my English writing is far better than his.

      Native English speakers speak various kinds of English. My present boss is Canadian and he talks like a book. He is very picky in using words. He does this to distinquish himself from others. Our QA guy graduated from University of Maryland and he talks very clearly. However, our networking guy speaks using a lot of slangs, such as "ain't".

      I dare say I am good at English grammars. At least, my understanding of English grammar is better that half of American people I have ever met. However, my commanding of the language falls far behind them. The grammar is important in learning. As we reached some levels, we should forget about it. The most important thing is to communicate with others, not the correctness in grammar.

      If you spend some time listening to the country and pop music, you will see that "I ain't ..." structure is a standard one in lyrics. Also, you won't be surprised to hear people singing "There is some questions...". It seems to me that grammar does apply to lyrics.

      Forget about grammar, because I have known too much about it. :-)更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
      • excellent explanation
      • thanks for your answer