Is ‘Innit’ Ungrammatical?

On a daily basis, we hear a load of phrases we can’t understand right away. ‘Innit’ is one of them.

For some people, ‘innit’ is just another tag question, a contraction of ‘isn’t it’. But people in urban Britain are using ‘innit’ to cover a wider and wider range of situations. Here are some examples of non-standard use, gleaned from recent messageboard postings:

• “We need to decide what to do about that now innit.” (don’t we?)
• “Now I can start calling you that, INNIT!” (can’t I?)
• “I can see where my REAL friends are, elsewhere innit!!” (aren’t they?)
• “I’ll show young Miss Hanna round to all the shops, innit.” (won’t I?)
• “I heard he was good in TNA when he was there so he can still wrestle good innit?” (can’t he?)

Click here to read some more about this phenomenon of language, encompassing Britain.Â