'Why can't we say "I amn't" ?' ― a love story...

'Why can't we say "I amn't"?'

This was a question some of my students often gave me after a class on contraction rules.

I am not ready.　→　I'm not ready.
You are not ready.　→　You're not ready.
He is not ready. 　→　He's not ready.

Pretty straightforward. The students catch the rule quickly. But then, I show them there are alternatives:

You aren't ready.
He isn't ready.

So from the analogy of the previous rule, some students put down in their workbooks "I amn't", and as I write this, my PC reminds me that this contraction is wrong by putting a red squiggly underline on the word, and I also do the same for my students' workbooks if it is written there. And here, the students give me that question.

The contraction "I amn't" is considered incorrect in standard English (it is acceptable in some English dialects), and you could just say to your students, "that's the rule". However, I wanted to give my students a reasonable explanation to this exception so that they will remember well. From my wild wild imagination, I came up with this explanation.


There is energy like love, hate or jealousy between words. Some words are attracted to each other and want to stay together, and also there are some words that just cannot stand sitting side by side, and that kind of combination is usually considered as "ungrammatical".

Now, as for "is" and  "are", they are "smooth guys"― you know those guys who are at all kinds of parties in town and seem to know every person and are friends with them? They are friendly with nouns, pronouns, noun phrases and clauses, and also with the negative "not". These "smooth guys" casually stick together with their friends and make contracted forms.

However, "am" is a "serious guy". It doesn't party, doesn't go out a lot. The only one it hangs around with is its soul mate "I". 

For "am", "I" is the soul mate. (For "I", unfortunately, "am" is a very close friend) 

They have very strong bond. "Am" is at ease when it is with "I", so they form a contraction "I'm". When the negative "not" sits next to "am" and tries to seduce "am" into forming a contraction, "am" finds it really uncomfortable. Also, "I" feels jealous towards "not" and does not want "am" to form a contraction with any other words but itself.


A love story.

My young students seem to like the story, and after that they remember the rule quite well.