On Tue, 21 Jan 1997 08:38:16 -0500 Christine R. Gray said:
>Misuse, schmisuse.  If someone uses "he ain't got none," do you let it
>go--assuming that this is in a college course on grammar???
 
In my college courses on grammar, I talk about ain't.  Now, I have had
a student write on a research paper about opening scenes in Westerns
"if it ain't broke, don't fix it" to suggest that there are classic
ways Westerns begins and that rarely do directors change them.
 
I did not say anything, but a computer grammar checker did and he got rid of
it.  Is the "ain't" in that string wrong, bad, a misuse?
 
Bob Yates, Central Missouri State U.  [log in to unmask]