Hi: I seldom, if ever use "ain't." I use it only in circumstances when I am deliberately chosing to epeak in a "slang" language. The general frequency of usage in conversation is highly dependent on the local dialect and

"Be you sick?" is not standard English. It could be a dialect form or an archaic usage. I understand it to mean the same as "Are you sick?". "No better from" is not right if you mean "no better than".

Prescriptivists today are sailing against the gales of mediocrity, adrift in the vast oceans of literary ignorance, besieged by the vicious onslaughts of rap, dialect, and urbandictionary. "(... )is just the same junk everyone says on

Like Yankee, I think the expression was probably picked up by the general public through movies, although that does not adequately explain the Liverpool connection I don't know about the American usage, but I had assumed

Whilst both 'gotten' and 'forgotten' are Americanisms in one sense, the latter is used with increasing frequency in post-WW2 Britain, in which American language has had a stronger influence. It is a falsehood that

Hi Anon What your grammar book says is a good guideline. Standard usage is to use the bare infinitive after "had better" and also after "should": - had better do - should do What you say you're hearing native speakers use

I was looking for some advice online on the use of the word feedback as a verb as opposed to a noun and came across this forum. Is this usage correct: "I will feedback to you once I receive the results." Is it proper to use the word

However, if I were to hear "I'll have you to know" with the same meaning as "I'll have you know", I'd expect it to be either a poetic/archaic usage or part of a regional dialect "I had someone to answer my

Last year, it seemed that the phone company always had someone to answer my complaint calls personally. This year I am waiting on hold every time I call. Apparently, the book A hand-book of present-day English (by E. Kruisinga) was written in

The original purpose of insurance was not to receive compensation in the event x happens. It was to ensure that any leins against whatever property x happened to were payable to the lein holders. For example, I have a car on which I owe $10K to