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With some little boy in blue

Who don't know you like I do

--

Why don't? Does it have any secret content?

Song: Elliott Smith - Between The Bars

J. Doe
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    Related [Is “she don't” sometimes considered correct form?](https://ell.stackexchange.com/q/108285/) – ColleenV Feb 20 '18 at 23:42

3 Answers3

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Don't in the third person is very common in many non-standard varieties of English round the world. Popular songs often make use of these varieties.

Colin Fine
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There are many dialects of English that conjugate both the to do verb and the to be verb "incorrectly." In my extended family, I often hear all of the following:

He don't
We wasn't
You wasn't

When I was quite young, I removed these from my idiolect, because I wanted to speak in a higher register. The lyrics of this song may simply be written in the songwriter's natural dialect or may be purposely used to give the impression of writing in a specific dialect.

joiedevivre
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Songs!

They use 'different English' if not bad!

In songs, it is common. One of my favorite songs too has it. Check here: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaeljackson/whoisit.html

She don't....she don't... is heard many times. As the answer here says, it's lyrical English and everything is fair there!

Maulik V
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