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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > -ing vs -in ´ ending
-ing vs -in ´ ending
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you_per7
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-ing vs -in ´ ending
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Dear Brothers and sisters,
A students of mine often replaces -ing with in ´
Eg: walking....walkin ´
Is it correct??? especially in a written expression????
I ´ ll appreciate your comments
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18 Feb 2014
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MoodyMoody
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Some dialects of English substitute /n/ for /ŋ/, but it is never proper in writing except in dialogue when attempting to demonstrate the non-standard dialect. To put it another way, if "walkin ´" isn ´t in quotation marks, it ´s wrong! |
18 Feb 2014
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nadnad
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Hello, I think that it ´s not correct in written English. I would ´t let my students write it like that, I expect them to spell words properly but they have to know that it exists but that it ´s not what we would write (I think it ´s a familiar way to shorten words ending with -ing), at least if we want a proper English.
:-) |
18 Feb 2014
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dutchboydvh
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I agree with Moody. It is often used when people speak, "I went walkin ´ " But it needs the apostrophe to make it correct, even as a quote."
It ´s grammatically incorrect in the same way as ain ´t. It ´s often said, and quoted, but never should be written outside quotation marks.
:-)
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19 Feb 2014
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ELOJOLIE274
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sometimes you ´ll find words written like that in novels,
for example:
he said " I ain ´t walkin ´, I ´m runnin ´ " = it ´s a way for the author to let the reader know this character has an accent
Stephen King, my favorite author, always does that: "Detta Walker goan get outen dis chair and cut dem skinny ole white candles off and feed em to those walkin buzzsaws down there!" (this character has a strong southern accent, and it makes it very hard to read sometimes, but I ´m sure it would be hard to understand if you were face to face with this character...) - taken from The Drawing of the Three, the Dark Tower II
So i would accept it in a dialogue only if the pupil could explain why s/he wrote it that way (to translate the oral quality of a written speech/dialogue...)
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19 Feb 2014
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almaz
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You ´ll have to remember that everyone has an accent and for many speakers of English, there is no [g] to drop in the first place in everyday speech, so the use of an apostrophe to indicate something ´missing ´ can carry with it a bit of sociocultural baggage. Its representation on the page is a matter of authorial choice – using a technique known as ´eye dialect ´. Interestingly, this has two distinct senses. According to the OED:
“unusual spelling intended to represent dialectal or colloquial idiosyncrasies
of speech”
And according to The American Heritage Dictionary:
“the use
of nonstandard spellings, such as enuff
for enough or wuz for was, to indicate that the speaker is uneducated or using colloquial,
dialectal, or nonstandard speech”
Either way, its use often says as much about the author as it does about the character portrayed (notice that in Elodie ´s example, King doesn ´t use apostrophes).
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19 Feb 2014
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Jayho
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It´s also used in songs e.g. These boots are made for walkin´ which also contains other shortened versions of the -ing form.
Interesting, Almaz. I love your bits of trivia. I often don ´t pronounce the full -ing form when talking with native speakers. That´s just how many people speak here but it´s not as pronounced in general Australian English (which I speak) as it is in broad Australian English (think Steve Irwin) and some US areas (Terri Irwin is an example). {Also, if you listen to the Waltzing Matilda video I posted in another post here, you´ll sometimes hear Waltzin´ instead of Waltzing}
As far as I´m concerned, in formal writing the -ing form should always be used. In informal writing it ´s ok - I sometimes use this form in my emails, but not usually. It ´s also ok in narrative writing, poetry, song writing etc if it is portraying how someone speaks, whether it be the narrator or a character.
Cheers
Jayho |
19 Feb 2014
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