Hello! And welcome to Chat ENG – a podcast where people chat about how they learn and use English.  My name is Sam, I’m a CELTA teacher and a performer, and I have a particular interest in pronunciation and expression.  In each episode, non-native and native speakers will chat about their experiences with English, share their advice and, at the end, I’ll give some pronunciation tips for you to take away and practice.  So – ready? Let’s get Chat ENG!

This episode, I’m chatting with Tina. Tina is currently studying for her Masters in Intercultural Communication in Helsinki and is the host of the podcast KYKY & Co. We met online for our chat and, for the most part, there were no interferences, but you might hear a ‘ping’ from my phone that was not on silent (amateur!). We chatted about being really Essex, what the word ‘culture’ really means, and the ideas of relearning verses learning from new, but I started by asking Tina to tell me a little bit about herself… INTERVIEW

As Tina said, What’s the worst that can happen if you speak English?  You make a mistake! That’s it! No one minds! Be brave! Intercultural Communication is such an interesting topic! If you want to learn more, check out Tina’s podcast KYKY & Co: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1564613   

So – this episode’s pronunciation tip is more about vocabulary – the very informal ways we express negatives. Now, I don’t want to say ‘incorrect ways’ because English is a live language and variations become accepted and you will hear them!  They can be confusing to learners, but they’re easy to understand when you identify them.  So, here are the 2 main ways native speakers use informal negatives in informal conversation…not exclusively these, but these are the ones you’ll hear more often.

First, “I ain’t going”.  At first you think ‘ain’t’ is an elision, 2 words become 1, but what is ‘ain’? Ain’t represents ‘I am not’ or ‘he / she is not’ or ‘you / we / they are not’.  So, it could be “he ain’t going” or “we ain’t going…”.  To confuse you even more, “ain’t” can also mean “haven’t” in present perfect sentences.  Examples of this could be “I ain’t taken your book!” (I haven’t taken your book) or “they ain’t seen her” (They haven’t seen her). The important thing to remember is that ‘ain’t’ is a very informal negative used only in informal speech, it is never written down - well, it shouldn’t be! Ain’t = are not, is not, am not, have not.  One to think about. 

Next, Double Negatives. We learn that  2 negatives make 1 positive, so for example “It’s not unreasonable” (2 negatives) means “it is reasonable” (1 positive) but, when we want simple negative sentences that express a negative point, we only need 1 negative.  Often I hear, and you may hear: “I don’t know nothing!” Which technically means “I know something!”. Confusing, right?  2 negatives = ‘don’t’ and ‘nothing’ = translation ‘something’!  Just remember that English is easy, so if you want to express a negative, use 1 negative per sentence = “I don’t know anything” (option 1) or “I know nothing!” (option 2) 

Finally, Let’s put them together: “I ain’t got none!” = 1st translation  “I haven’t got none”. How many negatives?  2!  So 2nd translation, consider: do you have none or do you have some?  To express that you have none, change the sentence to “I haven’t got any!” (option 1) or “I have none!” (option 2).  The more you hear these informal negatives, the easier it will become!

Over to you to explore! So there we are!  The transcript of this episode is available to read on the podcast’s webpage, so take a look!  Join me next time for more pronunciation and grammar tips, more advice and, most importantly, more chatting!  My thanks again to Tina and, for her music, a massive thanks to the wonderful Mara Carlyle.  Bye for now!