Standard

English
 Raise your hand if you like it.

1. I did it. 1. I done it.

2. Come quick!
3. the book that I bought
4. them books
5. I didn’t break anything.
6. I’m first, ain’t I?
2. Come quickly!
3. the book what I
bought
4. those books
5. I didn’t break nothing.
6. I’m first, aren’t I?
1. I took some money from 1. I took some money from
the ATM. the ATM machine.
2. My Dad always votes 2. My Dad always votes
Democrat. Democratic.
3. surfing the Internet 3. surfing the Web
4. Who will the blame fall 4. On whom will the blame
on? fall?
5. The IRS sent the refund 5. The IRS sent the refund
check to my wife and I. check to my wife and me.
6. ‘Can I speak to Susan?’ 6. ‘Can I speak to Susan?’
‘This is her.’ ‘This is she.’
7. This will wet your 7. This will whet your
appetite. appetite.
 What is standard English?
 “having your nouns and your verbs agree.”
 “what I learned at school, in Mrs.
McDuffey’s class.”
 “the proper language my mother stressed
from the time I was old enough to talk.”
 What is standard English?
 Standard English, also known as Standard Written English or SWE,
is the form of English most widely accepted as being clear and
proper.
 Publishers, writers, educators, and others have over the years
developed a consensus of what standard English consists of. It
includes word choice, word order, punctuation, and spelling.
 Standard English maintains a fairly uniform standard of
communication which can be understood by all speakers and users
of English regardless of differences in dialect, pronunciation, and
usage. This is why it is sometimes called Standard Written English.
 Standard English is written rather than spoken.
 In the 17th century, the king struggled for power and started there
being a standard way of writing.
What keeps standard English in its
place?

 Schools
 The media
 The military
 Dictionaries
 Double negatives: two ‘negative’
words in the same sentence. For
Standard English to apply one of
the negative words must be
changed.

I ain’t got no pencils I haven’t got any pencils

I don’t want none of that I don’t want any of that.

 Negative words
 Look at this sentence-
 The boy did not have no bow.

 It does not make sense because it has two negative words

(a word that means no) in it. It should say-
 The boy did not have a bow.

 Here are the common words we use to demonstrate that

something is negative- no, not, nothing, never, nowhere

 We also add the letters n't to words to make them

negative, like doesn't.
 Task
 Choose the correct word from the pair given to complete the
sentence.

 1. nothing / anything
 John did not tell his father ------ about the accident.
 John told his father ------ about the accident.

 2. no / any
 There isn't ----- cake left.
 There is ----- cake left.

 3. never / ever
 Don't you ----- get tired of knitting?
 Do you ---- get tired of knitting?
 Copy these into your books and write the
correct version underneath.

1. I’d like one of them cakes.

2. My uncle gave me this book whenever I was born.
3. It was thunder what we heard.
4. Mum learned me to ride a bike.
5. He never!
6. It’s right hot!
Try and think of some of your own. Write the non-standard and
standard versions.
 “Somebody somewhere is always complaining
about somebody else’s language. Somebody is
always carping about how kids aren’t taught
grammar anymore, about how political speeches
don’t rise to the rhetorical distinction of a soupcan
label, about how the planet is imperiled by the
galloping inability of people to know the
difference between “it’s” and “its”—and it’s a
crime, that’s what it is.”
• Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune, February 2005