Sometimes, dialogue (speech) may be written to show how people speak, even if this is not grammatically correct. Apostrophes may be used to show missing letters to help the reader to imagine how the speaker talks.

Question

What is the grammatically correct form of "ain't" here?

Answer 1

The grammatically correct form of "ain't" depends on the context in which it is used, as "ain't" can serve as a contraction for several different phrases. It can stand for "is not," "are not," "have not," or "has not."

For example:

• "I ain't going" can be grammatically expanded to "I am not going."
• "They ain't here" can be expanded to "They are not here."
• "He ain't finished" can be expanded to "He has not finished."

In each case, the grammatically correct version will change based on what "ain't" is intended to convey in the dialogue.