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I'm curious about the grammar in the vulgar idiom "Where the sun don't shine".

Why is there a don't instead of doesn't? The latter strikes me as the correct grammatical form, but I'm not sure.

2 Answers2

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It is an informal AmE usage:

Don’t vs doesn’t

Don't is occasionally used in American English speech and in historical writing as a contraction of does not (as in, "He don't know where he is going."), but this use is now considered improper and should be avoided.

(Merrian Webster)

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  • And many non-American dialects too. In the 1880s it was an upper-class trait in British English: At the end of Iolanthe, W.S.Gilbert has the Lord Chancellor (no less) saying Any fairy shall die who don't marry a mortal. – Colin Fine Jan 21 '20 at 09:40
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The third person singular (he, she, and it) form of the verb to do in the present tense is does. Therefore, "sun doesn't shine," is the standard English form and the only form acceptable for English students.

Quite often, native writers will use non-standard dialect forms of English to add emphasis or "character" to their writing. This is especially true for invectives such as, "Put that where the sun don't shine." (Shove it up your a**)