wasn't
(Redirected from wasn’t)
See also: wasnt
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- 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)
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈwɒzənt/, [ˈwɒzn̩(ʔ)], (colloquial, Yorkshire) IPA(key): [ˈwɒn(ʔ)]
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈwʌzənt/, [ˈwʌzn̩(t)] (colloquial, dialectal) IPA(key): [ˈwʌdn̩(t)]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: (UK) -ɒzənt
- Rhymes: (US) -ʌzənt
VerbEdit
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 …
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513