Non Standard Language Examples

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'We was at the park' -Teenager to his mother.
Non standard subject verb agreement. The plural pronoun 'we' juxtaposed with the singular past tense verb 'was' rather than the plural 'were'.
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'I don't know nothing' -School child to his teacher.
Double negative. The negator 'not' in the contraction 'don't' technically cancels out the negative indefinite pronoun 'nothing'. Double negatives are used in other languages so why are ours 'wrong'?- Jenny Cheshire
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'Who am I talking to?' -A person answering their phone.
In SE, the relative pronoun 'who' would be in its object form: 'whom'. The preposition 'to' also would not end the sentence. Both of these rules are declining in use, pedants could make this "mistake" without knowing. -Lesley Milroy.
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'I could of done better' -A student talking to their teacher about a grade.
The preposition 'of' has been used here instead of the verb 'have'. This reflects natural slurred pronunciation: the person could hear 'could've' and assume it is 'of'.
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'It's a lot of money though, innit' -A MLE speaker to her friend.
The elided tag 'innit' is an example of slang. This is the kind of language Lindsay Johns banned his mentees from using- he said it made them look stupid.
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'Will youse come over here please?'- A teacher to a group of students.
Non standard version of the 2nd person plural pronoun 'you'. Common in north eastern English dialects. Milroy & Milroy argue it makes discourse more clear: we know the speaker is addressing multiple people.
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'Coming up now is the swimmin' final' -Alex Scott on Olympic Coverage.
Scott's east London accent means she drops the 'g' phoneme on the gerund 'swimming'. She was criticised for this by former House of Lords member Digby Jones.
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'He coming over later' -AAVE speaker on the phone.
Omission of the copular verb 'is' before the verb 'coming'. Speaking in an AAVE dialect like this meant John Baugh was less likely to be called back by estate agents in California (linguistic profiling).
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'It's less than 5 miles away'- A person giving directions.
Lynne Truss (writer of books on grammar 'correctness') would criticise the use of the determiner 'less' with the countable noun 'miles' rather than 'fewer'.
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'It's /free/ fifteen.' -a primary school child.
Here the child's accent sees /θ/ (th) pronounced as /f/. This is called th-fronting. It was criticised by Sacred Heart School in Middlesbrough and parents were told to 'correct' their children.
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'You have bare shoes though bruv, don't lie'- A MLE speaker to his friend
The slang adjective 'bare' and truncated vocative noun 'bruv' would be banned by Lindsay Johns. However, banning slang hasn't worked before, we could take this slang and study it instead- Michael Rosen.
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'If I were famous I would buy a huge house'
This is an example of the subjunctive, a grammatical voice that is declining in use. This shows how SE is changing.
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'I ain't going to be moving anytime soon' -A person in a job interview.
The non-standard verb phrase contraction 'ain't' could potentially disadvantage the speaker in a job interview as it labels them as working-class, thus bringing up prejudices.
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'I have nowt to do with it' -Yorkshire speaker
Slang version of the indefinite pronoun 'nothing'. This goes against SE which has its roots in the prestige and power of London and Oxbridge in the 1700s. Now this is not considered appropriate for formal settings.
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'He be working at the grocery store'- An AAVE speaker about his brother.
The verb 'be' is used as a 'habitual be' in AAVE. It is used when the subject repeatedly or habitual does an action (in this case works at the store). AAVE has its own complex rules- William Labov
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Double negative. The negator 'not' in the contraction 'don't' technically cancels out the negative indefinite pronoun 'nothing'. Double negatives are used in other languages so why are ours 'wrong'?- Jenny Cheshire

Back

'I don't know nothing' -School child to his teacher.

Card 3

Front

In SE, the relative pronoun 'who' would be in its object form: 'whom'. The preposition 'to' also would not end the sentence. Both of these rules are declining in use, pedants could make this "mistake" without knowing. -Lesley Milroy.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

The preposition 'of' has been used here instead of the verb 'have'. This reflects natural slurred pronunciation: the person could hear 'could've' and assume it is 'of'.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

The elided tag 'innit' is an example of slang. This is the kind of language Lindsay Johns banned his mentees from using- he said it made them look stupid.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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