Comments on: aren’t I/am I not

By: brian

brian — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:28:40 +0000

Pedant,

What then is the tense of “Were I you,” or “If I were you,”? This doesn’t seem to be necessarily connected to time as would something more to the tune of “Had I been you,” or “If had been you”.

By: carlo

carlo — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:47:43 +0000

Correct grammar is always “what native speakers in a given time and place accept to be correct.” Consider Allman Brothers’ song “You can’t treat me this here way.” That is correct in the part of the US where they live. At least for those who belong to that speech community.

By: Mahdieh

Mahdieh — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:57:47 +0000

I mean “English grammer digest” insist on “am I not”!!

By: Mahdieh

Mahdieh — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:53:57 +0000

I’ve studied some books and each has used one of them. For example in “IN Charge 2″, unit 3, it is written: “I’m the only real witness, aren’t I?”
However, in “English Grammer Digest” it is used vice vesa.
I do agree with Andy, but the point is this, which one is completely correct? In turned to be an enigma!!!

By: Ann McReynolds

Ann McReynolds — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:58:15 +0000

Before you catch me….I meant aberration!

By: Ann McReynolds

Ann McReynolds — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:55:55 +0000

I have always said “am I not?” in daily speaking, and I have always flinched when I hear”aren’t I?” come out of someone’s mouth.

I have just found this discussion, and it inspired me to conduct a bit of grammar research, since I don’t remember the reasons for the grammar I learned a zillion years ago. Perhaps someone will find these comments to make sense. Actually, since #1-#3 are just basic grammar, it doesn’t matter if they “make sense” or not.

#1 – The English subjunctive for all REGULAR VERBS is always the infinitive form of the verb, in present, past, and future tenses, and in all voices.

#2 – “To be” is not a regular verb! In fact, it is highly irregular, as evidenced by its wildly irregular indicative voices. (e.g. I am, you are, he/she/it is, etc.)

#3 -However, ALL subjunctive voices for “to be” are fairly “regular”: Present Subjunctive of “be” is “if I be,” Past Subjunctive is “if I were,” and Future Subjunctive is “if I were to be.”

#4 – Clearly, “aren’t I” can muster no linguistic defense from the subjunctive. It is colloquial or slang or some other abberation. It cannot be rationalized into “correct” no matter how hard someone seeks to justify his/her linguistic habits.

#5 – If you want to say “aren’t I,” go right ahead. It’s your right. Just don’t try to justify it grammatically.

By: Alan Barrett

Alan Barrett — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:23:57 +0000

‘I aren’t’ is actually a misspelled version of a contract of ‘I am not’. Place apostrophes to indicate missing letters into the contraction and you will obtain the phrase ‘I a’n't’. Lengthen the ‘a’ and it ends up being pronounced ‘aan’t’ which is then mistranscribed as ‘aren’t’. Simple, really. In some dialects, it becomes ‘ain’t’. Both are contractions of ‘I am not’ rather than an ‘incorrect’ use of ‘are’.

By: Jeremy Allen

Jeremy Allen — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:04:41 +0000

Andy, you are right in this. But English requires capitalization, Andy. A capital E. We live in a world where the use and understanding, by others, of that usage warrants both acceptability and correctness. Wittgenstein?

By: Pedant

Pedant — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:17:30 +0000

It’s not subjunctive.

The subjunctive mood would be:

“Were I not?” (past tense)

“Be I not?” (present tense)

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:04:33 +0000

The present subjunctive would be “Be I not?” (which sounds obscure)

In English the subjunctive mood of the verb to be” is always formed as “be” in the present tense and “were” in the past tense. For other verbs it is formed with just the bare infinitive.

Examples

They insist that I be here (Present subjunctive)
I wish you were here (Past subjunctive)
They insist he play (Present subjunctive)

The subjunctive can never be formed with “I are” so the example of “Aren’t I?” is certainly not a subjunctive and just wrong!