triple negative...

Posted Feb 2, 2026 4:42 UTC (Mon) by felixfix (subscriber, #242)
In reply to: triple negative... by Heretic_Blacksheep
Parent article: Open source for phones: postmarketOS

Now you made me curious.

aint -- flagged
ain't -- accepted
wont -- accepted, but maybe as used in "as was his wont"
won't -- accepted
didnt -- flagged
didn't -- accepted
shant -- flagged
shan't -- accepted
isnt -- flagged
isn't -- accepted

I wonder why "aint" is accepted without the contraction's apostrophe.

Here's another phrase you might like: "It don't make me no never mind." My Texas aunt had never heard it but really liked it, and her speech was peppered with similar cornpone phrases. How that ever came to be a phrase, I don't know, but I stopped trying to figure out how many negatives it was. Google found lots of explanations that it means "I don't care" but none of them add the hint of exasperation I have always heard. "I don't care, just make a decision!" or "I don't care, stop worrying about it."

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triple negative...

Posted Feb 2, 2026 8:58 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (2 responses)

> I wonder why "aint" is accepted without the contraction's apostrophe.

Because it isn't a contraction? (technically, it can't be, because it contains an 'a')

But also maybe just because it's an irregular verb?

Mine, yours, its ...

And here I was about to say "amn't, aren't, aint" ... and suddenly realised "hey, maybe aint is just the irregular negative conjugation of the irregular verb 'to be'". After all, that's the way it's normally used ...

Cheers,
Wol

triple negative...

Posted Feb 2, 2026 11:27 UTC (Mon) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link] (1 responses)

Why does "a" ban a contraction? I have heard shan't ("shall not", perhaps should be "sha'n't" :P ), what'll (verbal at least, could be a colloquialism), what'd (again, verbal…might not be spelled this way). I also remember surprising a teacher in high school that "it'll" is in the dictionary.

triple negative...

Posted Feb 2, 2026 11:46 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> Why does "a" ban a contraction?

Because "isn't" doesn't contain an a? It can't lose an a if it hasn't got one to lose :-)

That's what made me think it's an irregular form, not a contraction.

Cheers,
Wol