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?
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ReplyDeleteCan you post an example of this confusing use of "isn't it"? Or several examples, preferably.
ReplyDeleteThis usage is rampant in the movie BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. A few examples:
ReplyDeleteSo 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.