The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why is the term "isn't it? Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 9 months ago. Active 9 months ago. Viewed 8k times. Improve this question. David M. David M David M In this respect it's the same as French n'est pas? JohnLawler That seems fairly consistent with what I experienced. Do you have any idea of the specific origin?
It seems an odd phrasing choice. Although as I say that, I am hearing in my head the cockney "In'it". It's probly contracted from "isn't it true? If a phrase has only one function, there's no information gain from echoing and rearranging complex phenomena like person, number, tense, or auxiliary. While i was watching "No country for old men", I heard one of the actors saying "I ain't have no water". This is grammatically incorrect but people use it as they don't need to be accurate in general life.
Nobody corrects them and they get used to it. DavidM My idea is the people you came across were well educated in the fields of engineering or medical sciences or chemistry or something that was not related to English language. You would never hear an English language professor using "isn't" inappropriately. I'm an engineering graduate from India and even I have heard people using "isn't it" in place of "doesn't it" and they held doctorate degrees in engineering.
Show 14 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. There are hundreds of languages spoken natively in India. Which language does "hain na" come from? Or is it found across many? What proof is there of this?
Lambie I'm a native Urdu speaker. Define proof. This phrase is very useful in evading a number of questions. This is another word-for-word translation from Hindi that is readily used when speaking in English as well.
In India, everybody who looks older than you is either an Auntie or an Uncle. Depending on the tone used, it can express happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, excitement and any other emotions that you can possibly think of.
This one can be used on two different occasions — both not very pleasant. Second, to suggest that your mind has blanked out. Now nothing is coming in my head. If the house next door is in the dark as well, we tend to breathe a sigh of relief. People in India can be divided into three different groups: vegetarians, non-vegetarian yes, we do eat meat!
The first two are quite straightforward, but the third is pretty much a suspect case. If you ever get invited to an Indian home as a guest, consider yourself very lucky.
Why are us Indians the way we are? Any problem? We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements.
To allow us to provide a better and more tailored experience please click "OK". Britain and India still have a few things in common. Among them is the use of fortnight as a measure of time, something that completely baffles our American cousins. I think it deserves to be used widely. Much better than saying take this pill every two weeks.
Or come back to me in 14 days. Really, no other word would fit the intense ritual of committing to memory that is a part of the Indian education system. Cramming would be a weak substitute. The constant swaying back and forth that accompanies the recitation of times or periodic tables can only be mugging.
I used to hate this phrase. A literal translation of a Hindi phrase, I thought of this as stuffy and pompous. Especially useful in family events when an unknown person beams at you while you are trying to place them. This article is more than 5 years old.
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