Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Northern Subject Rule

The Northern Subject Rule is a grammatical pattern that occurs in the dialects of Northern England and Scotland. Present-tense verbs often take the verbal -s suffix unless the personal subject pronouns I, you, we and they are directly next to the verb. As a result, the following sentences are possible:

The birds sings beautifully.
We often goes shopping there.
My parents loves their new home.
The children has many toys.
Japanese eats lots of fish.

In the dialects of Northern England, this pattern now varies and competes with the standard forms. In Newfoundland English and in certain Irish dialects such as that of Wexford, a similar pattern occurs. Other non-standard dialect patterns have merged such as I were and we was.

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