Ain't Ain't a Word - Yes, It Is!

Of course, ain’t is a word. For years, English teachers have been chastising young students to speak and write correctly, and to not use ain’t. Sure. Fine. It is nonstandard and rough, and I would never use it in classical writing, nonfiction, business or school writing, or 3rd Person narration. If you do, you’re just asking to be judged.

But language changes over time, especially the mutt-tongues of English and American-English. With continued use comes familiarity, with continued use comes acceptance. When someone who writes accepts the word, then it starts becoming standard, at least in some outlets. When it’s in print, people read it, and then have the opportunity to use it, themselves. The Oxford English Dictionary is always looking for when a new word is no longer a fad, when it has been in print often enough, and used in the same fashion, to be added to the lexicon. Want to wrack your brain trying to come up with an answer? You can rack it, too, if you like. Both are acceptable variation of the same word, and both spelled correctly.

Ain’t is a word started in England and comes to us in America from the immigration of Scots and Irish, and from what the English considered their own “lower classes” of dialect. It was fine until the 1800s when schools started focusing on a common grammar, and some things became wrong. Ain’t is a positive-negative contraction word, originally meaning am not.

Positive-negative words seem to contradict each other to create sense. Positive + Negative = No. Is + not = isn’t. Do + not = don’t. Does + not = doesn’t. The thing that is not. This thing is not true. This thing does not exist. Would + not, could + not, should + not…. You get the idea (but don’t ask me why will + not = won’t and not willn’t!).

Aye has long been a positive, a ‘yes’ word.

“Would you like a drink?” asked my host.

“Aye, that I would!” I responded in good cheer.

Sailors used it, letting their officers know they understood and would carry out an order.

“Keep a look-out off the port bow, sailor.”

“Aye-aye, Captain!”

Aye + not, therefore, is a useful positive-negative combination. It works for am not, is not, are not, and has not, among others, perhaps.

“I ain’t going to go to school today.”

“That solution ain’t going to work.”

“We ain’t getting on a plane today, not with this weather.”

“It ain’t been a good week for quitting smoking.”

In the ways the British massacred their words in trying to make them London-proper, often you’ll find an H starting your ain’t. Hain’t. You will find a lot of old southern US literature using hain’t, and a lot of current US southerners still using hain’t.

In all my examples, note, I use dialogue. The most you will use this word is in replicating true character dialogue, recreating how someone speaks. In real life, people say this word all the time, without judgement. In written dialogue, however, its use – or non-use – will immediately help describe a character’s background, education, upbringing, etc. for good or bad.

As I said, though, it really isn’t worth it to use it in your prose, because said judgement is then heaped upon you. (Notice I had the opportunity to use ain’t in that last sentence, but chose not to.) You have a 1st Person narrator? Knock yourself out and use it left-and-right for them, if you wish. 1st Person narration is all dialogue. In fact, it’s monologue. So, use it where it helps, and keep your old schoolmarm happy.

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