Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi, everyone!

I sometimes see ungrammatical expressions like"Boy meets girl"or "Love don't come easy" in authentic English resourses.

Grammatically, they should be "A boy meets a girl" and "Love doesn't come easily" respsctivelly.

Why do you think they have become popular phrases?

Thank you,

Yoshi-pooh,

[CP]

Plot of the movie "Jaws": Killer shark attacks sleepy seaside town.

Plot of the last love story you read or saw: Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy wins girl back again.

That is the shorthand, telegraphic language of headline writers and Hollywood producers. You will hear "boy meets girl" over and over, because so many stories are love stories, and that requires "boy meets girl." (Well, "Brokeback Mountain" is "boy meets boy.")

As for "don't," there are places where people are not so careful about using "doesn't" where "don't" is required, and in songs in particular, it sometimes is necessary to use "don't" rather than "doesn't" and to slip in adjectives where adverbs are required.

It will grate on your ears, but you will hear people say "It don't make no difference to me." Be tolerant. English don't come easy.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Jintii]

The use of don't instead of doesn't is very old in English, dating back centuries, and was even standard English for a long time.

Nowadays, however, it is considered uneducated. It is still present in the language, though. For instance, some of my relatives use "he don't" and "it don't", so I grew up hearing it (it doesn't grate on my ears at all!). It is NOT standard English, though, and it carries a stigma. For those reason, I don't recommend that non-native speakers pick up the habit of using it.

I agree with CP 100% about the telegraphic language of "boy meets girl."