# How many years before ain't is a word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101 "2004-04-15T02:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101/21 "2004-04-16T11:01:39Z")
> [@scm1001](#): > > I would have used “I’m a Doper, aren’t I?”. Is that wrong? It’s nonsense, to put it simply. “Aren’t” means “are not”, so you’d have said “I’m a Doper, are not I?”. Even if you’d ‘fixed’ it, it would transform to “I’m a Doper, are I not?”, something that’s not an improvement. You want the ‘am’ form of ‘to be’, and the only way to get that in convenient (contracted) form without making people’s eyes cross is to use ain’t. Pure and simple. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101/22 "2004-04-16T11:28:08Z")
well according to The Columbia guide to standard english [http://www.bartleby.com/68/56/256.html](http://www.bartleby.com/68/56/256.html) “aren’t I” is perfectly acceptable, though I agree the expanded form isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101/23 "2004-04-16T12:15:54Z")
**scm1001** , those are the contortions you force your language into when you begin to arbitrarily decide certain words aren’t ‘good enough’ for you. “Aren’t” _isn’t_ the correct word for that sentence based on all of the surrounding rules of English grammar, and making a special case simply to obviate the obvious need for “ain’t” is absurd. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101/24 "2004-04-16T14:06:39Z")
Derleth, dont argue with me. Go and tell Kenneth G. Wilson in “The Columbia Guide to Standard American English”, (1993). He obviously needs your input. Also argue with the 100,000 webpages with the phrase “aren’t I” in them (Google). English does not have to be logical or have to fit your preconceptions. It just is. “Ain’t I” is for unjustified reasons considered low english, “aren’t I” is “considered” more correct though logically it shouldn’t be. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101/25 "2004-04-16T14:47:38Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > “Y’all”, as the second-person plural, is arguably an even more extreme example of a really useful word being shoved into colloquialism simply on the collective whim of those who teach English classes and write dictionaries. It also suffers from some people’s inexplicable desire to write it as “ya’,ll.” I will never understand that. Also, I will never understand how “aren’t I” can be considered any less grating to the ear than “ain’t I.” Also also – and **Chronos** has commented on this\* – I don’t think it is strictly possible to split an infinitive; most authorities hold, reasonably enough, that the word “to” is not part of the infinitive form of a verb. For a good discussion of the whole issue, see [here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive) Also also also, don’t get me started on the whole “never end a sentence with a preposition” idiocy. A moose once bit my sister. RR \*Note that the word “this” has no clear antecedent. So sue me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-years-before-aint-is-a-word/240101.md?page=1)