Key Dialect Features - Grammar Flashcards
Demonstratives
modern dialects employ the demonstratives e.g ‘them books over there’
Possessive pronouns
some dialects use ‘us’ instead of ‘ours’
First person pronouns
certain dialects use ‘me’ instead of ‘my’
Third person pronouns
‘that’ is sometimes used rather than ‘it’ - used in South Midlands or East Angila
Plural second person pronoun
some dialects use ‘youse’ when referring to more than one listener
Plural marking
certain dialects use the singular form of the nouns instead of the plural e.g ‘its three mile away’ instead of ‘its three miles away’
Double Negatives
many dialects use the double negative e.g ‘ I didn’t have no dinner’
Prepositions
non-standard prepositions- ‘ he went up the park’
Adverbs
adjectives are used instead of adverbs e.g ‘he ran quick’
Subject verb agreement
many dialects contain subjects and verbs that don’t agree e.g ‘ I knows’ / ‘he were’
Negative verbs
certain dialects use the non standard negative ‘aint’
Never
using ‘never’ to make a past tense verb negative is often seen e.g ‘ I never done it ‘
To be
non standards use of the verb ‘ to be’ e.g ‘ I is happy’ or ‘I be happy’
Non standard negotiation
use of ‘aint’ instead of saying ‘isn’t’/ ‘am not’
Double subject
using a subject twice e.g ‘ Im always late me’
