Several years ago, I compiled a checklist of those grammatical features of Modern Scots that differ from Standard English, and from time to time I am asked for copies. This, combined with references made to it in print, has prompted me to make it available, although it has no claims to either originality or sophistication. [Since the last revision, some important work has appeared, in particular Häcker (1999) and two overviews of Modern Scots grammar: Beal (1997) and Purves (1997, rev. 2002). The existence of the latter two works makes it unnecessary to publish the present checklist, and I am accordingly making it available electronically. For further references to recent work, see www.abdn.ac.uk/~enl038/scotsbiblio. I apologise for the lack of footnotes (I hope to have time to remedy this shortly), and for other losses in transferring the file to .htm format.

The differences in grammar between Scots and Standard English are very numerous, and there is considerable scope here for quantitative studies of particular variables. There is also room for more detailed and systematic investigation of specific areas of grammatical structure in Scottish speech (embracing the continuum between Scots and Scottish Standard English), following the exemplary work of Miller and Brown in Edinburgh.

Some of the points listed below are rarities, in some cases because they are peripheral to the historical corpus of written Scots (whether because very localised, or colloquial, or both), and have now become obsolescent; in others, because they are recent importations. Any further documentation of such usages, from written sources or from speech, would be very valuable from a lexicographical point of view.

It is useful to have a historical benchmark with which to compare studies based on recent data. I hope that this checklist will provide an overview of the grammar of Scots (assuming that most of the structure not specifically dealt with below is shared with Standard English). Such an overview should be especially useful in relation to the stylistics of literature in Scots, particularly in identifying registers and in assessing the realism of purported colloquial language. It is important to be aware of those features of the grammar that might appropriately have been used in a literary representation of a given dialect, but in practice were not. In grammar more than at other linguistic levels, modern written Scots tends to adhere to the model instilled by literacy in Standard English.

Standard English as written in Scotland is generally indistinguishable from other British Standard English. However, in speech, the distinction between standard and non-standard is blurred, since standard speakers, in Scotland as elsewhere, use various localised forms (lexical and grammatical as well as phonological) unself-consciously in speech – and may be unaware that some of these are scotticisms. (Aitken, 1979, calls these "covert scotticisms".)

Not all non-standard items are highly localised. Many of those found in Scotland are widespread in English, e.g. regular inflections of verbs that are irregular in Standard English. As with localised items, the distinction between standard and non-standard is not always clear, and some items have been included that might be described as colloquial. For the description of Standard English, I have relied on Quirk et al. (1972).

[For Ulster Scots, see Robinson (1997). For Highland English, see Sabban (1982, 1985). For considerations of Celtic influence, see Macafee and O'Baoill (1997) and Filppula (1999).]

Since traditional dialectology, which is still our main source of information, has concentrated on qualitative variation, most of our information is of this kind, with the exception of the findings of Brown, Miller and Millar, Kirk, and Romaine in various works.

The usual forms of the negative particle in Scots are:

Some auxiliary and modal verbs are phonetically modified by the addition of the enclitic negative particle, e.g. winna (will + -na), alongside the now more common willnae and the mixed form willn't; sanna (sal "shall" + -na); dinna(e) (dae "do" + -na(e)) and a mixed form doannae.

In negative declarative sentences, SUBJECT – OPERATOR cliticisation, where it is possible, is preferred over OPERATOR – NEGATIVE PARTICLE cliticisation in Scottish speech, e.g. they'll no rather than they won't.

According to Hughes and Trudgill (1979), contraction on this pattern is also preferred in the North of England. I'm not, however, is usual in Standard English everywhere, and –re not is common. I amn't, by contrast, occurs in Ireland and Scotland. The peculiarly Scots form is I amnae.

The further north in Britain, the more likely one is to find the order OPERATOR – SUBJECT – NEGATIVE PARTICLE, in main clauses and in reversed polarity tags:

Does he not like it? (Hughes and Trudgill, 1979: 20)

Multiple negation, where the negative particle is semantically reinforced by the negative determiner, no, and its compounds (as opposed to any and its compounds), is common in Scots as in other non-standard varieties:

jis shows ye, canny leave nuthin alane (Stephen Mulrine, "Nostalgie" in Poems, 1971)

The free-standing negative particle is frequently used with adjectives in its scope:

Likewise, the free-standing negative particle can take as its scope the main verb of the clause:

and not obeying can be used instead of disobeying, and so on.

In the North of Scotland, on ("un-") is recorded by the SND as forming negatives with a following participial adjective:

The two types of negation, with wide and narrow scope, can occur in the same clause. This is not multiple negation in the usual sense, since these negatives are not mutually reinforcing:

He isnae still no working. (Brown and Millar, 1978: 106)

In the case of the modal verb must, which cannot be negated in the sense of logical necessity, the enclitic negative particle also takes the main verb as its scope:

He mustnae ü have taken the money.

must no þ (Brown and Millar, 1978: 110)

As in other non-standard varieties, the negative adverb never can refer to a single occasion:

The form int ("ain't") occurs in Glasgow, but only in reversed polarity tags, as the present tense of be + enclitic negative particle (not as a form of have):

This appears to be of recent occurrence in Scottish speech. The forms wint (past tense of be + enclitic negative particle) and dint (present tense of do + enclitic negative particle) also occur, again in reversed polarity tags only (cf. Yorkshire forms described by Petyt, 1985).

Negation of main verbs by a following negative particle (enclitic or free-standing) and without do-support, is now only literary:

Negation of main verbs in declarative clauses by a preceding negative particle survives in the South of Scotland:

It would be remarkable if this usage represented a survival of Early Scots negation with ne or na before the verb [but etymologically different items are involved].

A further minor type of negation is with the negative adverb nane meaning "not at all". This follows the main verb:

Do-support is not required in the second (or later) clause of co-ordinated imperatives:

A subject pronoun can appear in negative imperatives in Standard English. In Scottish speech, this is also common in positive imperatives:

Just you go tae sleep. (The Hard Man, op. cit., p.21)

Believe you me. (common idiom)

The auxiliary of the passive is frequently get in colloquial English. This is considered non-standard only when an animate agent is expressed, as it regularly is in Scots:

we just got chased by the parkies ("Gallus, did you say?", op. cit., p.2)

The preposition governing the agent noun is commonly fae ("from") or wi ("with") in Scots.

The Scots forms of the interrogative pronouns and determiners are as follows:

whae, wha ("who")

wham ("whom")

whase, whas ("whose")

whilk ("which")

whit ("what")

whatten, whatna

North-east dialect forms have /f/ for /ʍ/.

Whilk is probably obsolete in speech, but is preserved as a literary form:

Whit (or what) is probably the most usual non-personal interrogative determiner in Scottish speech. It is used with definite as well as indefinite reference:

Which as an interrogative pronoun is unusual in Scottish speech. Which as a determiner with indefinite yin (or one) is preferred, but whit yin (or what one) is in practice more common.

In querying measurement, the construction what – NOUN is usual in Scottish speech:

Whit age ur you? (The Hard Man, op. cit., p.69)

What wecht is it? (SND s.v. what)

The objective form wham is literary. It is replaced in speech by the subjective form, as in colloquial English generally.

The periphrases whae belangs (or who belongs) and (less commonly?) whae is aucht can be used to avoid whase:

Wha belangs this hoose? (Grant and Dixon, 1921: 101)

Wha is aucht the wean? (ibid, p.101)

The tag particle e, described by Millar and Brown, can be fronted to stand as the sole marker of interrogation:

E you've got a new bike? (Millar and Brown, 1979: 32)

The word shair (or sure) can be used in the same way:

Sure his nose is dirty? (overheard in Glasgow, 1980)

Both of these may prove to be more common in speech to or by children.

An adjective as subject complement is queried by whit like (or what like):

Let me see whit like they ur. (The Hard Man, op. cit., p.12)

Cause is queried by how, whit wey (or what way) and whit for (or what for):

Querying a sentence in the negative, a number of expressions with the preposition for are available – whit for no, how for no and why for no.

The formation of yes/no questions in Scots by inversion of the subject and main verb, and without do-support, apparently survived widely until recently. Examples can still be found in Shetland sources:

Existential there has a reduced form they, the in Scots. The construction there – NOUN PHRASE at the beginning of an existential sentence can therefore be interpreted as there with elision of the copula verb be, or as they are, with phonetic assimilation. This occurs with singular as well as plural subjects:

By contrast, there's and interrogative is there are now regular in Scottish speech with plural subjects, as in colloquial English generally:

Is there weapons? (The Hard Man, op. cit., p.15)

and likewise there was:

In oral narrative, existential sentences are occasionally introduced by it, a survival from Older Scots:

In Glasgow and perhaps more widely in Central Scotland, the subject noun phrase can be extracted from the main clause to stand as the object of the verb see. Its place is then taken by an appropriate personal pronoun. This usage probably originates with asyndeton of do you see – NOUN PHRASE – RECAPITULATORY PRONOUN:

A common collocation is see you:

Introductory see extends to other structures in sentence initial position, such as subordinate clauses and adverbials:

The ellipsis of recoverable sentence initial items (asyndeton) is regular in Scottish speech, as in colloquial English generally:

Auxiliary have is occasionally elided in Scots following a modal verb, especially when the modal takes the enclitic negative. The unstressed form /ʌ/ of have is perhaps phonetically assimilated to –na:

O Tibbie I hae seen the day / Ye wadna been sae shy. (Grant and Dixon, 1921: 120)

Have is frequently elided together with a relative pronoun:

Have is regularly elided in the idiom had better, as in other non-standard varieties:

"Well, Jack," he says, "you better go now" ("The three feathers", op. cit., p.227)

Will may be substituted:

ahl better away (Tom Leonard, "Tea time" in Bunnit Husslin, 1978)

Have is also regularly elided in have got to, as in colloquial English generally:

Verbs of motion are frequently elided in Scottish speech, giving quasi-adverbial uses of prepositional adverbs (see below).

Verbs of saying can also be elided in narrative, or replaced by be:

The Scots forms of the relative pronouns are:

at ("that")

whae, wha ("who")

wham ("whom")

whase, whas ("whose")

whilk ("which")

North-eastern dialect forms have /f/ for /ʍ/. As with the interrogative pronouns, wham and whilk are only literary.

In Scottish speech, as in colloquial English generally, the indeclinable relative pronoun that is preferred to the wh-relatives. Scottish speakers regularly use that for personal antecedents and in non-restrictive relative clauses as well as for non-personal antecedents and restrictive uses:

That is available not only as subject and object, but also with prepositions:

These are the people that we stay with.

Fronted prepositions and quantified relatives are normally unavailable in colloquial Scottish speech, but fronted prepositions do occur in literary Scots:

The possessive of that is expressed by the form that's:

The kye that's caur were born aa about the same time. (SND s.v. that)

or that is followed by an appropriate personal pronoun in the possessive form, or by a periphrastic possessive:

The crew that their boat wis vrackit are in Aiberdeen. (SND s.v. that)

That must be the yin that the tap o’t wis chopped aff.

Brown (1980) found that in Scottish speech, which is used almost exclusively in non-restrictive relative clauses with sentential antecedents:

In Scots, as in other non-standard varieties, the relative pronoun is optionally deleted when it is the subject of its clause:

This is particularly common with an existential main clause:

Standard English allows the reduction of relative clauses with an equative structure (e.g. "there are people waiting outside") except that this is not usually possible with one word complements in Standard English. However, these are regularly reduced in Scots speech:

The conjunction that is regularly elided in Scottish speech, as in colloquial English generally:

The infinitival complement is frequently introduced by fir tae (or for to) in Scots, as in other non-standard varieties:

He wis ready for tae die any time ("The three feathers", op. cit., p.228)

How can be used to introduce a complement (as opposed to an interrogative clause) in Scottish speech:

The distribution of the comparative and superlative inflections, -er and –est, is less restricted in Scots (and other non-standard varieties) than in Standard English:

an there he's turned the beautifullest king ye ever seen in yer life ("The three feathers", op. cit., p.233)

The addition of –er and –maist ("-most") to prepositional adverbs is less restricted in Scots than in Standard English:

at the hinner end

Like other non-standard varieties, Scots permits the formation of comparatives and superlatives by the simultaneous addition of –er, -est and mair (or more), maist (or most):

mair liker a laddie nor a wumman (ibid, p.7)

Double comparatives such as worser and leastest also arise, as in other non-standard varieties, when the inflections are added to suppletive forms.

The conjunction of comparison in Scots is variously nor (the preferred form in literary Scots), as or be (or by):

Better you nor me. (The Sash, op. cit., p.7)

When the post-modifying element has clause structure, what, recapitulating the hinge element, can be found in Scots:

The subordinating conjunction but what may be translated "otherwise than that":

The subordinating conjunction for aw (that) (also for all (that)) means "despite (the fact that)".

Like and as if are combined in Scots as in other non-standard varieties:

Two types of subordinate clause are regularly linked to their superordinate clause by and in Scots. The subordinate clause often, but not invariably, mentions a circumstance that ought to preclude the situation expressed in the main clause:

a) verbless subordinate clause

(i) and – OBJECT PERSONAL PRONOUN – SUBJECT COMPLEMENT

(ii) and – with PHRASE

An me wi ma bad leg tae. (title of a play by Billy Connolly)

b) non-finite –ing clause:

Her first bairn, and her nearin forty. ("Jock Tamson's bairns", op. cit., p.8)

In reversed polarity tags, the order OPERATOR – SUBJECT – ISOLATE NEGATIVE PARTICLE is regular in Scottish speech (see 1.2 above). Double negative tags occur following negative statements:

Your name's no Willie, isn't it no? (Millar and Brown, 1979: 27)

Millar and Brown (1979) identify a tag particle e in Scottish speech, used following positive statements, to elicit confirmation:

Your name's Willie, e? (ibid, p.41)

This particle can be fronted (4.2 above). A corresponding tag, e no occurs following negative statements:

He disnae like pictures, e no? (ibid, p.32)

These tags may be more usual in children's speech.

In Glasgow (as in Northern Ireland), a commonly used tag takes the form so – PRONOUN – OPERATOR. This is used to reinforce a positive statement:

The corresponding, but less common, reinforcing tag for a negative statement is neither – PRONOUN – OPERATOR:

Like and but are used in Scots to ameliorate the force of a statement, the latter perhaps more commonly in the West of Scotland:

Like also post-modifies adjectives:

Numerous main verbs that are irregular in Standard English can be declined regularly in Scots, and vice versa. There are often further differences in treatment for verbs which both agree in classifying as regular or irregular. There would be little point in listing the verbs concerned, as there is no up-to-date information on the currency of particular forms (see Wright, 1905, SND, and, for literary Scots, Graham, 1977). Some current examples may, however, be given:

a) past participle and past tense regular:

seed, gied ("gave"), gaed ("went"), drawed, throwed, hurtit, selt ("sold"), telt ("told"), catched, kneeled, sayed, heared, buyed

b) past tense irregular:

brung, widd ("waded")

c) past participle irregular:

haen ("had"), load, thunk (jocular), drunken, satten, gotten, pitten ("put")

d) reduplicated part participle:

brochten, hadden, soakent, wroten.

Like other non-standard varieties, Scots reduces the paradigm of several irregular verbs by selecting one form as both past tense and past participle, usually the past tense form, e.g. went, broke, gave, fell, knew, spoke, wore, tore, wrote, broke, ett ["ate"]; but also e.g. run, gien ["given"], drunk, shrunk, begun. In the case of come, gie ("give"), take, see and do (main verb), generalisation of both occurs. Some of these generalisations are historical, e.g. come (past tense) and fell (past participle). Others are recent, probably representing influences from English dialects (Trotter, 1901) or from Hiberno-English, and such forms appear to be innovating while those mentioned in a-d above are declining. This is despite the fact that the innovating forms are heavily stigmatised by the education system and described by vernacular speakers themselves as "slovenly" (Macaulay, 1977: 96) and as part of the stereotype of the "rough" working-class (Hanley, 1984: 166). This is an area that deserves further investigation.

There are dialectal differences in the forms of the dental suffix in Scots, which leads to conflicting accounts in the literature.

a) –it is found after plosives and unstressed vowels, e.g. wantit, soundit, jumpit, pickit, biggit, marriet, buriet. It is also still found, but less commonly, after fricatives, especially in literary Scots, e.g. screivit, forcit. In Caithness, -id is regular for Central Scots –it, e.g. cowpid, lookid.

b) –d is regular in Scots, as in Standard English, after a stressed vowel, e.g. caa'd, dee'd. It also appears to be more common than –it after voiced fricatives, e.g. screived. In the South of Scotland, -d is also regular after nasals, /r/ and /l/, e.g. sair'd ("served").

c) -t is regular in other Scots dialects after nasals, /r/ and /l/, e.g. kent, flutter't, killt, and is also common after voiceless fricatives, e.g. wisht, laucht.

The distribution of the present tense inflection –s, -es, was governed by a particular set of rules in Older Scots, which probably survive only in variable form, co-existing with the simpler rules of Standard English.

In the traditional system, the use of the inflection or not depends on the nature of the subject. With the exception of an adjacent personal pronoun subject (see below), the inflection appears throughout:

If the subject is an adjacent personal pronoun, the third person singular is inflected, as in Standard English, and so also is the second person singular, where it survives (see 19.3). The first person singular and the plural are uninflected in this syntactic environment (again, like Standard English).

However, even in Older Scots (Aitken, 1978), there are traces of a narrative present tense, where the inflection was used with all persons and numbers regardless of the nature of the subject, and this is regular in Modern Scots narration:

So anyway, here now ... they shouts for Jack ("The three feathers", op. cit., p.229)

"Naw!" I goes, near screaming, you know? ("Gallus, did you say?", op. cit., p.12)

(cf. says, sez in colloquial English generally). This is also the pattern when the present tense is used in a habitual sense.

The third person singular forms of be (including the past form was) and have are likewise generalised only when the subject is other than an adjacent personal pronoun:

"... times is pretty hard on us" ("The three dogs", op. cit., p.184)

Special subjunctive forms of verbs are on record. Wright states that main verbs are uninflected throughout the present subjunctive in Scots:

if the bird sing (1905: 298)

SND records a past subjunctive of the form had + tae INFINITIVE:

If she had tae recover she wad hae bin a big help tae him. (SND)

and present subjunctive forms of the verb be, namely be or bees, and binna with the enclitic negative particle.

The distinction between the present participle inflection –an(d) and the verbal noun inflection –in(g), which was apparently lost in Central Scots in the sixteenth century, survives in Caithness and in parts of the South of Scotland:

This distinction was also briefly revived in literary Scots under the influence of the Scots Style Sheet (1955):

Several verbs that are stative in Standard English take progressive aspect in Scots, namely think, want, forget, remember and hear:

"Ah wis thinkin ... Jack, ye widnae come" ("The three feathers" op. cit., p.232)

An indiscriminate use of the progressive aspect with stative verbs is a feature of the Highland stereotype in Scottish literature, and it may be that there is a Celtic influence here.

Some verbs that are intransitive in Standard English can be transitive in Scots, notably talk, learn (meaning "teach") and look:

Conversely, some verbs that are transitive in Standard English can be intransitive in Scots, offer being a particularly common example:

In Glasgow, and probably more widely, a form mur is found for the first person singular form of be. It is used under emphasis and avoids the awkward sequence Ah am, which can however occur:

Mur can take the enclitic negative particle:

It appears to be a blend of am and are. Notice that the need for emphasis is often produced by contrast with you are in the preceding context.

The form was is sometimes found with the second person:

Several prepositional adverbs can occur as defective verbs in Scots, with the sense of motion or the imparting of motion:

a) infinitive:

b) imperative:

OK Renfrew, outside. I'll deal with this. (The Hard Man, op. cit., p.52)

c) past tense:

d) past participle. The auxiliary is be:

The verbs want and need, which take the part participle as complement in Scottish speech (rather than the present participle), can also take such prepositional adverbs:

Jenny, are ye wantin' oot / Mang the knowes to frisk aboot? (SND s.v. out).

When the sense is of the imparting of motion, the preposition wi (or with) governs the object:

Occasionally the verbal status of these adverbs is confirmed by the use of verbal inflections:

So he oots wi his wee box, ... ("The cat and the hard cheese", op. cit., p.270)

In Orkney and Shetland dialect, be is the regular auxiliary of perfective aspect:

"Yes, well," he says, "we're gotten no fish" ("Maggie Miller's Tows", op. cit., p.95)

They were given up fishin at Urie then (ibid, p.99)

An when owld Maggie Miller heard 'at her spell was been broken, ... (ibid, p.100)

Be is also the regular auxiliary in Scots generally with a small group of verbs including start and come:

when I was just started school in the babies class, ... ("Our Merry", op. cit., p.15)

an when the dog wis come tae its pup - ... ("The princess and the pups", op. cit., p.260)

Auxiliary do has an emphatic form div in Scots, occurring for dae (i.e. with all persons and numbers except the third singular), probably modelled on the hae and hiv forms of have:

Will ye say 'at ye div tak' thoucht, George? (Grand and Dixon, 1921: 116)

Scottish (together with Northern English) speakers treat have (main verb) like the auxiliary in the following respects:

a) it can take an enclitic form:

He'd a good time last night. (Hughes and Trudgill, 1979: 25)

b) it takes part in SUBJECT – OPERATOR inversion in interrogative sentences:

Have you any money? (ibid, p.24)

However, in the sense of possession, have is frequently replaced by have got.

In Scottish speech, as in American English, there is a sequence had – (ENCLITIC NEGATIVE PARTICLE) – have PAST PARTICIPLE. The identity of the second have, which appears as a weak or enclitic form, is problematic (as witness the writers who spell it of):

Adams (1948) suggested that it was a survival of English dialectal y- before past participles, reinterpreted as have via the latter's weak form a. The occurrence of the form in Scotland and the USA is compatible with diffusion from Ulster. Fodor and Smith (1978) offer a purely synchronic analysis, seeing the first have as a modal and the second as the auxiliary of the perfect.

Brown and Millar (1980: 86) found that need to, used to and dare, which have been recorded as semi-modals in Scots, are now treated as main verbs in East Central Scotland.

Scottish speakers avoid must in the sense of obligation, reserving it to express logical necessity. The semi-modals have to, have got to and will have to are used instead, and in Scots, maun:

In negative declarative sentences with have to, Scottish (together with Northern English) speakers can negate the main verb:

You've no to go (Brown and Miller, 1975: 164)

i.e. "you are obliged (NEGATIVE you go)", whereas Southern English speakers would use mustn't.

Negation of the auxiliary requires do-support:

You don't have to go.

In negative interrogatives, the construction with do-support is accordingly ambiguous:

Do you no have to go? (ibid, p.169)

i.e. "QUESTION (NEGATIVE you are obliged (you go))" and "QUESTION (you are obliged (NEGATIVE you go))". Like main verbs, have to takes do-support in the emphatic positive construction with so:

He does so have to go! (ibid, p.170)

Since must is reserved to the sense of logical necessity, mustn't occurs freely in this sense in Scottish (together with Northern English) speech:

He mustn't be in. (Hughes and Trudgill, 1979: 23)

In common with most of the English-speaking world, Scottish speakers reserve should for the sense of moral obligation. In hypothetical constructions, would is used:

Will is used in Scots, as in other non-standard varieties, in sentences that are predictive statements in construction, questions with positive expectation in intonation and sense:

And this will be your brother?

Will is also used to ameliorate direct statements and questions:

Would is used in the same way:

Scottish speakers follow the colloquial practice of using will with all persons and numbers. Shall can however be used, again with all persons and numbers,

a) as a formal form:

b) to express intention emphatically:

Sal (also shall) remains generally available in Shetland:

"Oh," he says, "thu sanna wänt that." ("Maggie Miller's tows", op. cit. p.97)

May is avoided in Scottish speech, except as a formal alternative to can in the sense of permission. In the sense of possibility, could and might (Scots micht) are used. In the negative, can't is preferred for the sense "it is not possible that"; might not for the sense "it is possible that not". However, the Scots form michtnae (below in the mixed form mightnae) also occurs in the former sense:

In the interrogative, possibility is expressed by will or could, with might only in the interrogative, and only with the main verb as its scope, thus, whereas the following means to an English speaker "is it not possible that it might be broken?", to a Scottish speaker it is more likely to mean "is it possible that it might stil be whole?":

Might it no(t) be broken? (Brown and Miller, 1975: 168)

In Central and Southern Scotland, can and could are found as the second element in double modal constructions. Can is regularly used as an infinitive, without to, following will. Brown and Miller (1975) tested the responses of Edinburgh speakers to sentences containing will can, and found the following order of acceptability:

a) negative declarative:

He'll no can come this week (Brown and Miller, 1975: 174)

b) positive declarative:

The manager will can tell you if it's come (ibid, p.174)

c) negative interrogative:

Will he no can mend them? (ibid, p.174)

Could likewise appears as an infinitive, following would:

Less common are other modals with could:

I didn't used tae could tak them at aa. (SND s.v. can)

Other double modals occur occasionally:

They should ought to make the rules clear. (Brown and Miller, 1975: 174)

Like other non-standard varieties, Scots regularly forms manner adverbs without the addition of a suffix:

Ah wid huv arranged the furniture different. (The Hard Man, op. cit., p.52)

ye could easy tell by the size o his nose. ("Jock Tamson's Bairns", op. cit., p.7)

Scots has an adverbial suffix –s, used with certain sentence adverbs, particularly mebbies ("maybe"), whiles ("sometimes") and nae wunners ("no wonder"). This also occurs in combination with –ly, e.g. readilies, geylies.

More archaic, and less productive, is –lins, as in aiblins ("maybe") and nearlins ("nearly").

A group of prepositional adverbs are compounded with by(e), thus ootbye ("outside there"), doon by ("down there"), etc.

In some cases, restrictions on the position of adverbs are different in Scots from Standard English:

Up he goes, flying almost this time ("Our Merry", op. cit., p.28)

she near about massacreed him ("The three dogs", op. cit., p.186)

A wider range of noun phrases occur as adverbials in Scots than in Standard English:

Constructions involving the movement of prepositions tend to be avoided in Scottish speech. Fronted prepositions in relative clauses occur only in literary texts (see above). According to Hughes and Trudgill (1979: 25), speakers in Scotland and the North of England prefer not to postpone the prepositional adverb in phrasal verbs:

This preference persists even when there is a pronominal object:

Mum, do you have anything to wipe up that with? (overheard in Edinburgh, 1980)

There are numerous instances in which prepositions are used with different senses or in different lexical environments in Scots than in Standard English, including:

a) intae (or into) is used as a preposition of place north of the Forth:

b) aff o (or off of) expresses various senses of "from":

c) on is used to express the relationship between a part of the body and the whole:

d) oot (or out) is equivalent to "out of"

e) a noun phrase expressing constituent elements is post-modified by a phrase with o (or of) expressing the whole (rather than vice versa)

an wi this young man of a crew ("Maggie Miller's tows", op. cit., p.94)

f) outwith "without, outside" is normal usage in Scottish legal terminology.

The suffix –ie is used freely to form nouns from monosyllabic adjectives and other monosyllabic nouns, e.g. daftie, sweetie, kiltie.

A small number of nouns take an irregular plural in Scots differing from their (regular or irregular) plural in Standard English, particularly een "eyes", shuin "shoes", caur "calves", kye or kine "cows", childer "children", galluses "braces" (literally "gallows").

Regular plurals sometimes occur, as in other non-standard varieties, where Standard English has an irregular form, e.g. louses "lice".

Where other varieties of English voice /f/ and /θ/ finally in nouns such as wife and path before the –s inflection, as well as before the /s/ of house, no such change takes place in Scots, or, for the most part, in Scottish Standard English.

As in other non-standard varieties, the inflection of the possessive can be added to a regular plural, e.g. bairns's.

Several groups of nouns regularly take zero plural marker in Scots when used in a collective sense:

a) nouns of measurement and quantity, e.g. eight year, six pound;

b) names of large domestic animals

c) the compounds theirsel "self" and their lane "lone":

When a possessive noun is post-modified, the possessive inflection can be postponed, as in other non-standard varieties:

that's the man at ye met yesterday's dochter (Murray, 1873: 166)

In Insular Scots, certain nouns referring to inanimate objects take gender marked pronouns:

The diminutive suffix –ie is used freely, as in colloquial English generally, sometimes in combination with –ock, which is especially productive in the North of Scotland, giving –ockie. In Caithness, -ock takes the form –ag, e.g. Cheordag "Geordie".

The usual Scots indefinite term for a person is a body. Compounds with –body are preferred over compounds with –one, e.g. awbody "everyone". Aw "all" combines with –body, -thing and –where in place of every. The Scots equivalent of –body else is QUANTIFIER – ither body, e.g. ony ither body.

Ane "one" can stand alone as the indefinite term for a person:

Scots forms of the first person singular pronoun are:

Nominative: Ah

Accusative: me

Possessive, determiner: ma, Insular Scots me

nominal: mines

Us is regularly used with singular reference in Scots as in colloquial English generally.

Scots forms are:

Nominative: South and East of Scotland oo

Accusative: huz

Possessive, determiner: oor, unstressed wir

nominal: oors.

The second person singular pronouns survive in spoken Scots only in Insular Scots, where the local dialect forms have /d/ for /đ/. The forms are:

Nominative: du, also thoo

Accusative: dee, also thee

Possessive, determiner: dee, also thee

As in Older Scots, regular verbs take the –(e)s inflection in the present tense when there is a second person pronoun subject, and likewise is and has.

The distinction between nominative ye and accusative you has not survived in Modern Scots, although in Ulster Scots, and perhaps in other dialects, ye does occur as a stressed form (in either function).

Second person plural forms, recorded as Hiberno-English by Wright (1905), are now regular in Glasgow dialect, and widespread in Central Scotland. These forms, nominative and accusative alike, are youse and unstressed yiz.

Although h-dropping is not a feature of Scottish speech (except in the fisher dialect of the Cromarty Firth), /h/ is elided in unstressed forms of he, him, his and her. Conversely, /h/ is added to the emphatic forms huz "us" and hit "it". Other Scots forms are he's "his" and shae (Insular Scots shö) "she".

The possessive determiner its is avoided in Scots, as in other varieties of non-standard English, but is of course available from Standard English.

One is virtually unavailable as an indefinite human pronoun in Scottish speech, and is a stereotype of the English of England. Colloquial you is used instead.

The forms of the third person plural pronoun are as in Standard English, except accusative thaim. They is also used as an indefinite subject in Scottish speech, without any explicit antecedent, as an alternative to impersonal constructions:

Its (see above) can be replaced in Scots by o it (also of it), and reduced forms o't, o'd.

The periphrastic possessive o me (or of me) is part of the Highland stereotype in Scottish literature. Periphrastic possessives occur regularly in the idioms for the life o(f) + ACCUSATIVE PERSONAL PRONOUN and be the death o(f) + ACCUSATIVE PERSONAL PRONOUN.

Like other varieties of colloquial or non-standard English, Scottish speech employs the accusative forms of the personal pronouns in the following circumstances:

a) conjoined subject:

b) in apposition to a noun:

Scots also has the accusative forms of the plural pronouns in apposition to the indefinite pronoun yins (also ones), e.g. you yins.

c) when the pronoun is separated from the verb, for instance by a relative clause:

d) as the subject of verbless or non-finite –ing clauses (see above);

e) in denials:

She's a pious wife, sir. Me ca' her a witch! (SND, s.v. I)

f) as a postponed subject:

nae need o a tit-halter her ("Jock Tamson's bairns", op. cit., p.7)

g) as a subject complement:

it was really me that caused the bother ("Our Merry", op. cit., p.15)

In Scottish speech, the order of pronominal objects is usually INDIRECT – DIRECT, even when this means that a pronoun follows a noun:

gie the bairn't (SND s.v. it)

Like other non-standard varieties, Scots bases all reflexive forms with sel (also self) on the possessive forms of the personal pronouns, thus hissel and theirsel(s).

The adjective ain (also own) can be inserted between the pronoun and –sel(s) for emphasis, e.g. their ain sels. Twa(e) (also two) is also common in this position:

Gang away yer twae sels (Murray, 1873: 197)

The reflexive pronouns can function as adverbials in Scottish speech, with the sense "by REFLEXIVE PRONOUN":

Yoursel(f) as an emphatic alternative to you is associated with Highland English, but is more general in the greeting:

Oh, it's yersel.

The form a occurs before vowels as well as before consonants in Scots:

she would get a assistant ("Maggie Miller's tows", op. cit., p.94)

Ae or ane (also one) is used emphatically in place of the indefinite article:

I've got one hell of a sair heid.

The definite article is used in Scots with exophoric or homophoric reference before various categories of nouns where Standard English employs no determiner, including:

a) diseases:

He's aw choked up wi the cauld.

b) trades, sciences and branches of knowledge:

c) names of days:

It'll be ready by the Monday of next week.

d) institutions:

e) means of public transport:

f) languages:

and him a guid hand at screivan the Scots ("Inter alia", Akros, 10, 1969:59)

g) family members:

h) parts of the body:

i) miscellaneous

j) with the names of various periods of time, including those with to- in Standard English, thus the day, the nicht (also the night), the morn, the streen "yestreen", the noo (also the now), the year.

Possessive pronouns are used before certain nouns in Scots where other varieties have no determiner, including names of meals and the noun bed:

I'm away tae ma bed.

That has the reduced form at. There are distinctive forms of the plural demonstratives: thir "these" and thae "those". Them "those" occurs occasionally, as in other non-standard varieties:

In Northern Scots, and formerly more widely (DOST f/c), this and that are used for both singular and plural:

Scots has an additional distinction in the demonstrative system: yon (singular and plural) expresses a further degree of physical or conceptual distance than that and thae:

Yon also has the form thon by analogy with the rest of the paradigm.

Scottish speakers tend to avoid demonstratives in nominal function antecedent to a relative clause:

However, demonstratives can be found in this position in literary Scots:

That which is not available in colloquial Scottish speech, and is replaced by what:

Rather than use thae and thir in nominal function, Scottish speakers prefer DEMONSTRATIVE – anes (or ones):

Ah'll tak thae yins.

or, when the demonstrative would be the object of the sentence, the personal pronoun thaim (also them):

Ah'll tak thaim.

As in colloquial English generally, these (Scots thir) is used in narratives with reference to past time:

Conversely, thae (also those) is occasionally found with reference to time continuing up to the present of the speaker:

There is a muckle steer on thae days ("A muckle steer", op., cit., p.6)

This is usual in Scots in adverbials expressing time since, e.g. this wee while, this day or two.

That and thae occur with cataphoric reference:

I will say that for the English, that they are a ceeveleesed people. (SND s.v. that)

This and that are used elliptically for "this / that time / place / person":

I'll hae plenty adae atween this and Whitsunday. (SND s.v. this)

The numeral ane (yin, een, etc.) "one" has contrasting nominal and determiner forms in tradititional Scots, with ane etc. for the nominal, and ae (yae) for the determiner. The same distinction is found in the co-ordinate construction the tae / the tane ... the tither:

The tae half o' the gillies winna ken. (Grant and Dixon, 1921:105)

However, ane etc. is now usually generalised to both functions in speech:

The door blew doon yin nicht in the wun. (SND s.v. yin)

The Scots form of the ordinal suffix is –t, thus fourt, fift, saxt, etc.

There are some differences between Scots and Standard English in the distribution of the suffix –en, e.g. beechen but wood and wheat (alongside wheaten).

The names of places can be used as adjectives:

There are a number of open class quantifiers in Scots that act as pre-modifiers of nouns (but not of pronouns) rather than as heads followed by an of phrase containing the noun, including plenty, bit, pickle, drap (also drop) and wheen:

Grannie had a wheen ither ploys ("Me and ma grannies, I", op. cit., p.16)

Conversely, eneugh (also enough) takes an of phrase:

Now they had enough o baet an that ("Maggie Miller's tows", op. cit., p.99)

That generally replaces so (Scots sae) in Scottish speech:

a) as direct object:

A tellt ye that. (Wilson, 1915:94)

It can also be used:

She's fifty come February – you'd never think it.

b) as predicate of a modal verb:

That can be fronted without inducing SUBJECT – OPERATOR inversion:

c) as a subject complement:

d) that is also used instead of so as an intensifier:

So is used as a pro-form by Scottish speakers in the following constructions:

a) emphatic sentence fragments:

He isnae coming. He is so. (Brown and Millar, 1980:115)

b) in apposition to the predicate in emphatic replies:

He is so coming. (ibid)

This is an innovatory usage, and is not recorded with Scots sae. There is a form sut, probably confined to children's speech, which appears to be influenced by nut, an emphatic form of "not" (see above):

"Ah'm no a bampot." "Ye are sut." "Ah mur nut."

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