Lo básico (en inglés)

[Gise]

I only know for sure that they usually use "ain't" as a substitution for are not (aren't), am not and is not (isn't).

I ain't stupid. (I am not stupid)
We ain't joking. (We aren't joking)

You'll find [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain't]this[/URL] interesting.



ain't = are not (aren't), am not, is not (isn't)
gotta = got to
gonna = going to
wanna = want a / want to
getcha = get you
gotcha = got you
hafta = have to
hasta = has to
y'all = you all

[Emeric]

That's right, Gise.

I also heard in Brooklyn, N.Y. some young black boys playing and saying : "Gimme the boa" (they meant : "Give me the ball !"). That was in the early sixties, under the Kennedy administration.

About forty years later, an American friend of mine, who taught English for years, once told me that actually "You ain't nothing" is quite stupid 'cause it really means : "You are not nothing", so, in fact, one is saying : "You ARE someone" !!!!

[Exotica]

Only the ghetto says "ain't".

Lately I've been watching "The Wire", which has tons of New York slang; I honesty struggle understanding it; that much that I have to have subtitles and time to time I ask my husband "what did he say, what does that mean?"

I had a bizarre encounter with an old dude this weekend. We were driving to Detroit and stop some where in Ohio to gas up; there was this old dude that came by and pointed at a death bird who was caught on our car's front and said "You got some lunch there", he picked a napkin and took the death bird off our car. Then he asked my husband "what do you do?"

That is bizarre.....No stranger is gonna just pop up on your face asking you out of the blue "what do you do" .

Apparently in that region, asking somebody "what do you do" when that person is obviously driving means "where are you going" or "where are you driving to", while in my region "what do you do" means "what do you do for living".....Funny.

I think that every place has a speaking code.

Later!

[Emeric]

) Neg

They didn´t bought a new bike

S + didn't + V + rest of the sentence

Int

Little mistake ... They didn't BUY a new bike.

[Gise]

Little mistake ... They didn't BUY a new bike.

Cierto. Se me chispoteó.

[Exotica]

That is a very common mistake for foreigners...Gosh I do it all the time...I always recall it right after I said it ,and I correct it...It's just not easy to set your mind up to make a question in past tense or a negative sentence different than just a sentence in past tense...

Bummer...