I don't have no money.
- Thread starter rafaelgan
- Start date
I don't have any money
It should be "I don't have any money" or "I have no money", though sometimes in informal situations you may hear people say "I don't have no money".
This is the so-called conversational grammar when people, esp. the less educated ones, often almost deliberately twist the grammar rules to make their speech sound more informal. However, you, as a foreign student, should beware of using these because in your case it will be most likely considered a mistake.
Unfortunately, this is the kind of sentence that will immediately get you branded as "less educated," "uneducated," or a "foreigner." You really should avoid deliberate grammar errors if you want to learn to speak English well. Besides, in AE, it would be much more common to say/hear, "I ain't got no money," so this isn't even common "bad grammar."
It's incorrect if you want to sound as though you have learned correct English.
For the same reason that you just put "are" in the wrong place. Lack of knowledge, fluency, education, etc.
Some people say it because they don't care about correct grammar. It separates the educated from the uneducated, which is rather disappointing. And, yes to is not correct in that sentence. "To say" is the infinitive form. Since there is no helping verb, you have to conjugate the verb, and "to" is removed. I know, there is very little conjugation in English.
I also corrected some of your mistakes in the quoted sentence.
It was I who barred out the word "to" in your sentence "I heard somebody to say it" because the verb "to hear" in English is not followed by an infiinitve.
To answer your question about why people use incorrect expressions, the answer would be the same for English or Spanish-speaking people: Why do some native Spanish-speakers speak Spanish incorrectly? I'd say they do this either because they don't know any better or because they are defying convention or because they want to be a part of a group which also does this or for some other mysterious reason.
To answer your question about why people use incorrect expressions, the answer would be the same for English or Spanish-speaking people: Why do some native Spanish-speakers speak Spanish incorrectly? I'd say they do this either because they don't know any better or because they are defying convention or because they want to be a part of a group which also does this or for some other mysterious reason.
Because they are uneducated, don't know any better, don't properly understand English grammar etc. This mistake is made on both sides of the Atlantic, but it is wrong.
"I don't have ANY money" is correct.
I hope this helps.
I heard my mom say it.
I made my mom say it.
I saw my mom do it.
I told my mom to say it.
I asked my mom to say it.
Some verbs use "to". Others don't. I don't know what the rule is.
I heard you scream.
I saw you laugh.
I felt you shake.
These verbs have to do with the senses. You don't do anything. You simply see, hear or feel something.
I ordered you to stop.
I asked you to stop.
I told you to stop.
I caused you to stop.
Now you are causing something to happen, or you are attempting to do so.
This is an examption:
I made you stop.
No "to" with "make".
I hope someone else will be able to give you a better set of rules.
Most of the people who say I don't have no money and I ain't got no money do so simply because it is grammatically correct in their dialects. There is no important difference between the two sentences: They simply represent two different nonstandard grammars, and it may well be that there are dialects where both statements would be grammatical.[1])
Some of the people who say I don't have no money and I ain't got no money have adopted that way of speaking as a form of slang. Fans of rap music, for example, may adopt hip-hop slang, in which negative concordance (also known as the double negative) is acceptable.
Those are the most common reasons, and probably explain the speech of the people you heard. Note, however, there are at least two other possibilities.
Some people who say I don't have no money and I ain't got no money do not have English as a mother tongue and learned English not in school, but directly from working-class speakers of a nonstandard grammar.
Finally, I would expect that some people who learned English as a second language in school would use negative concordance from time to time because it is used in their mother tongue and then carries over into their English.
Note:
[1] In The Red Green Show, the character named Red Green refers to one recurring segment of the show as If it ain't broke, you're not trying. So many people expect nonstandard grammar to always use ain't that on their Web sites they report that Red says If it ain't broke, you ain't trying, but he doesn't. Now, Red Green is a fictional character, but, as I indicated above, I would not be surprised at all if some people's nonstandard grammar accepts both the ain't negation and the not negation, sometimes even in the same compound sentence.
An aspect that has not yet been touched on is that is some circles (particularly of the youth culture) correct pronunciation and grammer are seen as elitist and are frowned upon.
People speak in the accepted local dialect (unless they are foreigners, or from a different region)
A newsreader can dress down and walk the streets of any rough neigbourhood, but he will be seen as a victim whenever he speaks unless he too adopts the local slang.
Rod
People speak in the accepted local dialect (unless they are foreigners, or from a different region)
A newsreader can dress down and walk the streets of any rough neigbourhood, but he will be seen as a victim whenever he speaks unless he too adopts the local slang.
Rod