7.11. DAVE THE HOOLIGAN’S GUIDE TO SPEAKING ENGLISH BADLY. (Real English, street language, and slang.)

Vocabulary. ‘AIN’T’.

Notice the overuse also of the double negative – a very common characteristic of British colloquial language and slang, which when copied by foreign students merely sounds like they haven’t learnt the correct rules of English.

 ‘It ain’t nobody’s business (it isn’t anybody’s business), what I do, as long as I ain’t hurting nobody (..I’m not hurting anybody). I ain’t gonna (I’m not going to…) listen to my stupid neighbour telling me what I should be doing. He ain’t nobody (He isn’t anybody…) special. And I ain’t (I haven’t ever../ have never) ever told him what to do with his life. I said to him that he ain’t got no (…that he hasn’t got any…) right to tell my wife that we ain’t (…we aren’t…) looking after the garden properly. He ain’t ever (He hasn’t ever…) cleaned the path that goes between our houses. You ain’t gonna (You aren’t going to…) believe what he said to me....’