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I know the grammatical correct way is he doesn't but I have seen many people saying don't with singular subjects, is there any case where it's correct.

I am just learning, please ignore my mistakes if I did any here. You can tell me my mistakes any time.

Heman7
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    It's very informal to use "he don't". As a language learner, you never want to use it. – Mitch Jan 30 '15 at 14:22
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    Informal and incorrect, grammatically, wouldn't you say, @Mitch? At best, you can say it is used by certain US ethnic dialects, but even in those cases it just sounds wrong and uneducated to these native ears. – Kristina Lopez Jan 30 '15 at 14:26
  • @KristinaLopez: I hesitate to say 'ungrammatical' because I tend to use that in the linguistic sense, that is, people tend to use "he don't" consistently when speaking their variety. But yes, any school teacher (for native or EFL) would and should call that very strongly 'ungrammatical'. 'Incorrect' in the great great majority of native English speakers (and certainly in media and schools) – Mitch Jan 30 '15 at 14:36
  • I don't know if it's an identifiable feature of any "ethnic dialects," but if "right" means "appropriate," and not "grammatical," then in certain (native-speaker) sociolects: yes. – Rusty Tuba Jan 30 '15 at 14:40
  • Discussion is not for comments. Especially when it has nothing to do with the question at hand. – Matt E. Эллен Feb 03 '15 at 19:31

2 Answers2

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"He don't is not grammarically correct in standard American English. However it is the proper conjugation in AAVE (African American Vernacular English). So you may often hear black celebrities (especially rap stars and other musicians) say this. Or in movies set in primarily black contexts. You won't hear many well-educated black American professionals use this construction.

Brian Hitchcock
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No, "he don't" is short for "he do not", and "he do" is not a valid construction. The verb "to do" always conjugates to "he does" for the third person present tense.

Mark
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  • I actually have heard many of the people, the big celebs saying he don't or she don't. I didn't expect them to do this kinds of silly mistakes while speaking, that's why I asked it. – Heman7 Jan 30 '15 at 15:43
  • It's used in some varieties of African American informal language, which has very unconventional and informal grammar. – Mark Jan 30 '15 at 15:46
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    Inappropriate reasoning. John Purdy has said elsewhere: 'But a huge number of English speakers, even those that are well-educated, use there's universally, regardless of the number of the noun in question, so you will probably not receive any odd looks for saying or writing there's, and if you do, just cite the fact that it can't be incorrect if a majority of people use it.' [answered Feb 16 '11] However, these same people would almost certainly not use say 'There is some serviettes over there'. So identical distributions for abbreviated forms may not be assumed. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 31 '15 at 11:44