Dialects

Every speaker of English uses a particular dialect.  Some grow up speaking one dialect and others are comfortable speaking in multiple dialects depending on who they are interacting with.  When you study English you are usually learning a more standard form, like you might hear on the news, popular tv shows, and other places where numerous people from around the United States or world gather to communicate. Standard English is necessary for academic, corporate, and government communication.

Dialects differ because they have different rules for what is acceptable.  This difference may be in vocabulary, accent, grammatical constructions or any combination of these. What is correct in one dialect might be ungrammatical in another.

Remember this when you hear an unusual form. You might be hearing someone speak a dialect you are not used to, like this:

I might could do that his weekend. 

In Standard English this is not acceptable.  However, in some dialects this is perfectly ok. Listen carefully and you will here these variations fairly often. Don’t get overwhelmed but if you want to see how complex it can get, then look at the map linked here.

Feel free to email me with any questions about this or other aspects of English.

Best,

Shawn