wasn't
See also: wasnt
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- wadn't, warn't, wudn't, wunt (pronunciation spellings)
- wa'n't, wan't (pronunciation spellings, colloquial, dated)
- wasnt (informal, nonstandard)
- wazn't, wuzzent (eye dialect)
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɒz(ə)nt/, [ˈwɒzn̩(ʔ)], (colloquial, Yorkshire) IPA(key): [ˈwɒn(ʔ)]
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwʌz(ə)nt/, [ˈwʌzn̩(t)] (colloquial, dialectal) IPA(key): [ˈwʌdn̩(t)]
Audio (GA) (file) - Hyphenation: was‧n't
- Rhymes: (RP) -ɒzənt
- Rhymes: (GA) -ʌzənt
Verb edit
wasn't
- was not (negative auxiliary[1])
- 1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish:
- Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …
Derived terms edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513