aren't

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See also: arent

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

are +‎ -n’t

Verb

aren't

  1. are not (negative auxiliary[1])
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Etymology 2

Spelling replacement of the homonym an’t.

Verb

aren't

  1. (colloquial) A contraction of “am not”, used e.g. in the construction "aren’t I?"
    • 1904, George Manville Fenn, To Win Or To Die: A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze:
      I’m a nasty-tempered dog if any one tries to take my bone away; aren’t I, my sons?
    • 2008 July 1, “Falling in Love”, in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Ricky Underwood (Daren Kagasoff):
      Aren’t I supposed to tell you how I feel?
    • 2010 October 26, “Why Aren’t I Home?”, in Athletics (music), Why Aren’t I Home?:
Usage notes
  • Aren’t as a contraction of “am not” is used most often in the question aren’t I? (= am I not?). In the non-interrogative form, the standard contraction of “I am not” is “I’m not”.
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References

  1. ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513

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