mightn't
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]mightn't
- (British) might not (negative auxiliary[1])
- 1931, Mary Hunter Austin, Starry Adventure, page 274:
- Her driver was new to the country; he mightn't be prepared for the leaping of the yellow water down dry arroyos, swift as the pouncings of a cat, or the snake-like slidings of tons of loosened rock and clay from the steep potreros […]
- 1963, Perry Mason, The Case of the Greek Goddess (Television Season 6, Episode 25)
- “But, mightn’t there have been something unusual about the Stimatis contract itself?” [Perry Mason cross-examining Roger Correll.]
- 1974, Mario Vargas Llosa, Conversation in the Cathedral: A Novel, Harper & Row (First Rayo Edition, 2005), page 275:
- "But at night she would still think the same thing: mightn't it be that he wouldn't come to see her anymore?"
Coordinate terms
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513