this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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English usage and grammar

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Can "n't " and " + [pronoun]" be used with any verb? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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When I first learnt English, I thought this type of formulation only worked with a few verbs like "do", "have","should" (ex: "Should I do this? No, I shouldn't.")

More recently I also encountered "Need I?" and "needn't", tho they're more rarely used. But this got me wondering, is it still an exceptional construction, with "need" being one of the exceptions, or can it be done with every verbs? For example, are the following sentences correct:

  • Read you mangas? No, I readn't them.
  • Grow they potatoes? No, they grown't these.
  • Sounds it like a good idea? No, it soundsn't.

I know talking like this would raise a few eyebrows, but does it break any established rule?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Contracted “not” (-n’t) can only apply to auxiliary verbs and main verb “be” (copulas are strange ). Because poetic forms like “She knows not the way” are not ungrammatical to native speakers, I suspect that they were once more commonly used and survive today as art and perhaps some ritual speech. But they were likely not contracted.

Subject-verb inversion for question formation is common among Indo-European languages. In modern English, it’s only done with auxiliaries to form yes/no questions, but again it may have been done with main verbs in the past.

If you’re really interested, check out a good English linguistics course.