English Grammar: Negative contractions of the verb "TO BE"

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is on negative contractions or abbreviations,

so this is something you will hear a lot when people speak because people use these abbreviations

or contractions all the time, in informal speech especially because it's quicker. Okay?

So we're looking at some contractions using the negative because the way it's constructed

is a bit different from the way it's done with the positive statement. Okay, so negative

contractions, verb "to be".

So, let's have a look first of all at the present tense. So, the positive would be:

"I am", but the negative is: "I am not", but in the contracted form people say all the

time when they're speaking: "I'm not. I'm not." And when it's written down you have

an apostrophe which shows that there's something missing. So the letter "a" is missing here

for "I am", so: "I'm not." Okay? Then... That's the first-person singular. So then second-person

singular, "you": "You're not" because "am" changes to "are", "a-r-e", so: "You are not"

contracted becomes "You're not" with an apostrophe, but then with all of these after the first

person, all the other ones have an alternative version. So, you can either say: "You're not"

or "You aren't", "You are", and instead of "not" spelt out, you've got "n't", so there

are two different ways of saying it, either: "You're not" or "You aren't", and there isn't

really much difference between them in terms of which is... They're both similar, they're

both informal spoken. There isn't one that sounds more old-fashioned than the other.

They're just alternatives. So: "You're not" or "You aren't". You may have heard people

using this form and perhaps being confused by it, or you may be used to one form and

not the other one, so this is giving you both here. So: "You're not" or "You aren't". Okay,

then the third-person singular, so it's: "he", "she", "it", third-person singular. So it's

either: "He's not" for "He is not", "He's not", or "She's not", or "It's not"; or it

can be: "He isn't", and again, it's the "not" part that gets the apostrophe rather than

the "is" part. "He's not" or "He isn't"; "She's not", "She isn't"; "It's not", "It isn't".

Okay. And then moving on to the plural, first-person plural, "we", so: "We are not" becomes "We're

not", "We are not". You may also be not quite sure how to pronounce these when they're contracted,

so I hope this lesson helps you with that as well. Some people get a bit confused about

how to say it, so: "We are not", "We're not", or: "We aren't", "We aren't". Okay? And then

"you" will be the same again here in the plural, the second-person plural is just the same:

"You", "You're not", "You aren't". And then we have the third-person plural for "they":

"They are not" becomes "They're not", "They're not", or: "They aren't", "They aren't". Okay?

So, I hope that's helpful, there.

And then there's a funny thing that happens, there's a non-standard version of this which

you might hear in the UK, especially in the London area, but I think it's also used in

other parts of the country, too. And it's a non-standard, which some people call bad

grammar, but to be more polite, it's called non-standard. It's not the standard grammar,

and it's this "ain't", and again an "'t" shows that it's not, but "a", "not", nobody says:

"a not", but in the contracted form it's pronounced: "ain't" and it can be used for all the pronouns,

which is quite useful really that it doesn't change. It may be non-standard, but at least

it doesn't change so it's easy, although I wouldn't advise you to use it because it sounds

very casual, very informal. So you would say: "I ain't", "I ain't", "You ain't", "He ain't",

"She ain't", "It ain't", "We ain't", "They ain't", so meaning: "I ain't going to the

cinema", "We ain't going tonight", "He ain't working today", things like that. So, "ain't"

you will hear probably people saying it, especially if you're in the UK; you might hear it on

television, on the radio, in films, and so on. Okay?

And then back to the standard grammar again now, going to the past tense, so: "Was not"

becomes "Wasn't", "Wasn't", and "Were not" becomes "Weren't", "Weren't". So: "was" and

"were" depending on which person. So: "I wasn't", "You weren't", "He/She/It wasn't", "We weren't",

"They weren't". Okay? And then for the future: "Won't be", which is a bit strange, but "won't"

is a contracted form of "will not". So it's a bit strange because the "i" and the "ll"

of "will" changes to "wo". We've got "not" here, and then we've got "wo", not "will".

We don't say: "willn't", we say: "won't". Maybe because "willn't" is difficult to say,

I don't know. But: "Won't be" means "Will not be". Okay? And again, that can be used

for every person, singular or plural. "I won't be", "You won't be", "He won't be", "We won't

be", "They won't be", "They won't be going to the party", whatever. Okay?

Right, so those are all the contractions using the verb "to be", and then to finish we have

some song titles here. So I wonder if you can work out if you recognize the song titles

and if you can see what is missing in the gaps. Okay? So, shall we go through them one

at a time? "____ ____ unusual", and the performer, the singer is Tom Jones. A Welsh singer. You

may think of him as English or British. He's from Wales, which is part of Britain, part

of the UK. So: "____ ____ unusual", so this is to do with a negative using the verb "to

be". Okay. Let's just go through and then we'll go back and fill in the gaps. So this

one, I'm sure you've heard of this song: "You ____ nothin' but a hound dog." A "hound" and

a "dog", it's the same thing. Why? What is a hound dog? It's maybe a particular kind

of dog, but "hound" and "dog" mean the same, but Elvis Presley you've probably heard of,

so if you want to think about what goes in the gap there. And then this one: "____ ____

there", this is somebody in the negative using the verb "to be", "there". Okay? And then

finally: "He ____ heavy, he's my brother" and... Oh, that was The Zombies, by the way.

And then this is another pop group, The Hollies. Okay. So, let's have a look then.

So, have you guessed what these all are? "____ ____ unusual". So it's a negative so I'll

put the negative in. Just in case you haven't got it, the negative might help you with the

other part. So I'll put the "not" there. So now we need a pronoun and the verb "to be".

"____ not unusual", so it's... I'll give you a clue, it's the third-person singular: "he",

"she", or "it". So which do you think it might be? Okay, so it's "It's": "It's not unusual"

is the song title. Okay? Next one: "You ____ nothin' but a hound dog", so which of these

could it be? So, we've only got one space for the word, so could it be that one? Yes,

I think so. "You", "You ain't", so that just proves I was wrong about the London area in

the UK. Elvis Presley used this as well in America, so "ain't" is used in America. So,

okay. I should have realized that. So: "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog". All right.

"...crying all the time", I think it goes on. So, this one then, let's have a look:

"____ ____ there", and it's negative. "Somebody, notin", okay. Not... Somebody is not there.

Who is it who's not there? Do you know this song? So clue, third-person singular: "he",

"she", or "it". Is it: "He's not there", "She's not there", "It's not there"? Okay, so there

it is, that's the one. Okay? "She's not there". And finally: "He ____ heavy, he's my brother",

so negative contraction, single gap, so it's like this one again: "He ain't heavy", "He

ain't heavy, he's my brother".

Okay, good, so I hope you've found that useful and interesting. And if you'd like to go to

the website, www.engvid.com, there's a quiz there to test you on this. So, thank you very

much for watching and hope to see you again soon. Bye for now.