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Native ’ungrammatical’ phrases | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7376 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 69 16 August 2005 at 5:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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When learning a language we use grammar books, programs and tapes. They all tend to use grammatically correct phrases.
I am thus always surprised to see that some ungrammatical phrases are widely used by some native speakers on a regular basis. There is of course a question of level of speech and social class, but I think it's quite important to learn and recognize such common 'ungrammatical phrases'. I will begin by some examples in French: 'C'est ça qu'est ce que je veux' ('This is it what I want' sounds very ungrammatical when written, yet you hear it). 'Y'en a des qui le font.' ('There are some who do it '). 'Je vais au coiffeur / au docteur' ('I go 'at' the hairdresser/the doctor' whereas a French schoolteacher would immediately correct you and say 'chez le coiffeur'). Please allow me to add some examples in English although I do not want to start a drawn-out debate on whether a person is stupid or not classy if they use it. My point is to see that these are phrases that would be corrected as wrong in a language class and yet are frequently used by some native speakers. 'I don't need no cop to tell me how to run my life!' 'I'll tell you what to do with them cars!' 'I don't want no negative sh*t' (I actually heard this one myself) I wonder if you have also been faced with similar phrases in your target language. Edited by administrator on 16 August 2005 at 10:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| czech Senior Member United States Joined 7194 days ago 395 posts - 378 votes Studies: English* | Message 2 of 69 16 August 2005 at 8:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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Double negation and using "them" as a demonstrative is becoming increasingly popular in America, no matter what the social class.
"I don't want none of that." 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| brandon Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 7047 days ago 54 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Dutch, Swedish, Italian | Message 3 of 69 18 August 2005 at 11:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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The word "ain't" is widely spoken in America. It's the contraction for "am not". I suppose because there is 'aren't' and 'isn't', people needed a contraction for 'am not'.
"I ain't going to the movies" instead of "I'm not going to the movies" Another one is the disregard for subjunctive... "If I was there..." instead of "If I were there..." Also, sometimes when people want to over exaggerate... "It's the most biggest thing I've ever seen" instead of simply "the biggest" 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7376 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 69 18 August 2005 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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One of the first ungrammatical phrases I learned in English is I wanna. Very useful when watching movies but not a hit with my English teacher.
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| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7188 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 5 of 69 18 August 2005 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That sort of contraction is common with other words too. For example, "Wanna, gonna, oughta" There are a few more that are said but never written, such as "have to(hafta), used to(yusta)"
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| Kyle Groupie United States Joined 7075 days ago 49 posts - 49 votes | Message 6 of 69 18 August 2005 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Very typical exchange in America:
"How's is going?" "Good" Not techinically correct, because the question asked "how," and that means the answer should be an adverb, in this case, "well." This is funny because people who try to sound educated usually answer "well," and this can sound very pretentious around here. The same goes for "How are you?" But either way in America, it's "good" all the time. There's "shoulda" as in "damn dude, you shoulda gone." "I is," "They is," "You's," are sometimes heard instead on "I'm, "They're" and "You're." PS: Around here, ain't can also mean "is not," or "are not" as in "Those ain't no apples!" ALTHOUGH, "ain't" was recently added to the Webster's Dictionary. So maybe now it IS grammtically correct, right? Edited by Kyle on 18 August 2005 at 6:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7318 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 69 18 August 2005 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Grammatically speaking, "good" is an appropriate response to "How are you?"
The dictionary includes many variants of words in a language, including informal language. Being in the dictionary does not necessarily indicate its correctness in usage. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7104 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 8 of 69 18 August 2005 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, ain't is correct. However I forget what it even is a contraction of sometimes.
I find the double negative complex somewhat entertaining, especially when I answer the person back literally. This confuses to many people. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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