The Secret Passwords of Middle-Class Grammar

The secret passwords aren’t the usual class giveaways like dinner or serviette – being secret, they haven’t been identified until here. These secret passwords are hidden in the grammar, and they are words we use all the time – the most common verbs, some pronouns, negatives, adverbs – which happen to differ in the middle-class and working-class versions. If you don’t use the middle-class words, you don’t get into the middle-class.