# EN: he/she don't [sic]



## luckyli

Hello everybody,
Actually I see more and more the use of "don't" for the third person. For eg in the song "Never ever" of Ciara, there is the following phrase:
"If that boy *don't* love you by now..."
Grammatically it must be "if that boy doesn't love you by now....." right? I don't think that is an error when the author of this song wrote it


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## newg

Yes  
It must be : 
_"If that boy *doesn't* love you by now..."_

 
Don't trust songs... Never.


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## no_cre0

To be grammatically correct, it should definitely be "if that boy doesn't love you by now...". "If he don't..." is certainly understood by English speakers and many people do speak that way, but its not correct.


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## Lamb777

It's not correct indeed.  I guess songs are easier to pronounce that way.  Too bad.!


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## no_cre0

It does cut out a syllable which would make it flow better in some songs. Guess thats why.


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## KHOULE

I do not
you do not 
he(she) does not


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## Forero

It's not good grammar, but to me it seems like a blend of "doesn't" and "won't".


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## sound shift

In songs, the use of "don't" with the third person singular is common. Some possible reasons are:-
1) "Don't" makes a bigger impact than "doesn't";
2) "Don't" fits the music better than "doesn't";
3) The singer wants to appear to be uneducated or "counter-cultural".

Songs are of course not a good model for non-native students of English.


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## luckyli

In fact the use of "don't" with the 3rd person singular exists not only in some songs but in some american films I've seen. I guess that means spoken English, just like in French there are some words that don't exist in the dictionnary but people use them by the way.


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## jamsmasher

luckyli said:


> In fact the use of "don't" with the 3rd person singular exists not only in some songs but in some american films I've seen. I guess that means spoken English, just like in French there are some words that don't exist in the dictionnary but people use them by the way.



Indeed some native English speakers use "don't" with the 3rd person singular, but this comes across as uneducated to the vast majority.

Similiarly, you will find some incorrectly use "was" in the 2nd person singular.


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## no_cre0

I always find it strange when I hear people say "you was here yesterday weren't you".


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## coeurdenids

It's just a case of artistic license, in music anyway, but sadly, in real life it sounds bad.


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## jack2tianjin

bonjour tout le monde,

j'ai une petite question qui me tracasse, pourquoi a l oral, ou dans des chansons,  j entends des :
he dont know, 
she dont know 

au lieu de :
he doesn't know, 
she doesn't know?

je voudrais juste comprendre, avoir confirmation que grammaticalement c est faux mais en langage oral ca passe,

 merci d avance.


Jack


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## jann

C'est tout à fait grammaticalement faux.... mais je ne dirais pas que "ça passe" à l'oral.

 Ça s'entend, c'est clair, et surtout dans certaines régions, mais c'est mal parler.  Ces erreurs sont plus fréquentes chez ceux qui n'ont pas connu les avantages d'une bonne formation scolaire.  Le choix de parler comme ça quand on sait bien que c'est faux peut également signaler une volonté à se conformer à ou à témoigner de son appartenance à certains groupes sociaux (tout comme le langage de la banlieue en France).

Dans une chanson, ça passe mieux : c'est incorrect, bien sûr, mais ça fait décontracté, et on peut comprendre que ce genre de substitution va souvent aider pour le rythme ou pour la rime. 

(J'ai fusionné votre question avec un fil existent au même sujet : les réponses plus haut pourraient vous intéresser.)Jann
membre et modératrice


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## jack2tianjin

hello, bonjour tout le monde!

merci pour vos reponses, elles sont tres claires, c est ce que je pensais, mais d avoir toutes ces precisions me rend plus sur qu autour de moi les gens ne savent pas parler, enfin j exagère bien sur,  je conçois que c est tout simplement une mauvaise habitude prise depuis longtemps ou pour se donner un style.


Merci a tout le monde!
Ce site est vraiment bien!

ps desole pour les accents, j utilise un clavier qwerty

Merci  Jann pour ta réponse, c est parfait!

entre nous, j ai vu que tu es américain(e), mais j ai le sentiment que tu parles mieux français que moi, je dis ca en voyant ta réponse en français. 

Merci  Jamsmasher, tu as repondu a l autre question qui me tracassait depuis longtemps, remarque est très pertinente, je me souviens l avoir entendu a plusieurs reprises le you "was" au lieu d'avoir you "were". En francais, au moins on peut pas avoir ce probleme! XD


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## whims

Hello everybody,

 I just realize someone I don't understand. Why in the Disney song "kiss the girl" (from the little mermaid) do they say :
*She don't* say a word and she won't say a word until you kiss the girl.

Shouldn't it be "she doesn't" ??


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## Keith Bradford

whims said:


> ... Why in the Disney song "kiss the girl" (from the little mermaid) do they say :
> She* don't* say a word and she *won't *say a word until you kiss the girl...



To make it rhyme.

It's colloquial and not correct English.


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## whims

Thank you very much *Keith Bradford*.

I am astounded to see that English Disney songs are not correct English. I don't think it is the same in French.


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## snarkhunter

... Check the early Beatles song and you'll find a few more! (such as "My baby don't care"...)


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## Keith Bradford

whims said:


> ...I am astounded to see that English Disney songs are not correct English. I don't think it is the same in French.



Ce que tu décris là est assez typique. Dans la traduction, ce sont les petites anomalies qui disparaissent - la version traduite de n'importe quoi est presque toujours plus "correcte" que l'original. Et plus longue, et moins belle...


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## Forero

Dans "The Little Mermaid", le chanteur (un crabe de la mer des Caraïbes) parle et chante avec l'accent et le grammaire créoles de sa mer natale. C'est un peu différent de l'anglais standard, mais authentique, je crois.


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## Zolina

Tout le monde a bien répondre à la question, je veux seulement dire que "she/he don't" est VRAIMENT FAUX et il ne faut jamais le dire, mais il existe certains anglophones qui le disent normalement. je dis jamais cela, mais quand quelqu'un me le dit, c'est normal. 

(je sais pas si c'est un phénomème seulement américain ou pas)


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## Keith Bradford

Pas spécialement américain du tout - on entend des Londoniens dire parfois "She don't know nuffink" (= she doesn't know nothing).


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## lucas-sp

To say "s/he don't" or "you was" is incorrect by the rules of high English grammar...

But there are many dialects (including some dialects of British English, and notably black American English, including the creoles spoken by the Caribbean crab) in which "s/he don't" and "you was" are correct. In those dialects, it could even be grammatically incorrect to say "s/he doesn't," because the third person singular form of the verb is "don't."

You can't answer this question without accepting first of all that there are many Englishes, and that we should describe each one on its own terms.


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