Friday, June 8, 2012

isn’t it/innit: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Friday, June 8, 2012

isn’t it/innit 
In South Asia you often hear people end sentences with “isn’t it?” in contexts where traditional English would require “doesn’t it,” “won’t it,” “aren’t you,” and related expressions. In Britain and among American Indians, among others, this “invariant isn’t” is reduced to “innit,” and may be used even more broadly as a general emphatic exclamation at the end of almost any statement.

This interesting pattern is liable to puzzle, amuse, or annoy those who aren’t used to it, isn’t it?

3 comments:

  1. Can you post an example of this confusing use of "isn't it"? Or several examples, preferably.

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  2. This usage is rampant in the movie BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. A few examples:

    So Jess can get the tube, innit.

    She looks like a jar of bloody Ragu, innit.

    Just 'cause she's still a V, man, she thinks she's better than us, innit.


    ...it works like a tag question at the end of a statement, but the verb (to be/is) does not necessarily match the verb used in the statement. In standard English the above examples would come out like this:

    So Jess can get the tube, can't she?

    She looks like a jar of bloody Ragu, doesn't she?

    Just 'cause she's still a V, man, she thinks she's better than us, doesn't she?

    ... none of which would work for the character portrayed in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM.

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