I ain't done much healing

Question

A new song titled "Hello" by Adele starts like this:

Hello, it's me, I was wondering
If after all these years you'd like to
meet to go over everything
They say that time's supposed to heal, yeah
But I ain't done much healing

In the last line, what does "ain't" mean, "am not" or "have not"?

Blue Jay · Accepted Answer

Here it would mean have not.

JungKim · Answer

Blue JayHere it would mean have not.

Thanks. So can you say "I haven't done much healing" and "I didn't do much healing" to mean "I haven't been healed much" and "I wasn't healed much", respectively?

Probus · Answer

The first two mean the same as "I ain't done much healing." The second two do not, for an obvious grammatical reason that you should be able to figure out, regardless of you language.

Dave_anon · Answer

Hi

The verb 'to heal' can be transitive or intransitive...

- Because of the lack of equipment, I could not heal his wound quickly
- His wound did not heal quickly
- He did not heal quickly

I'm inclined to agree with our original enquirer ...

- I ain't done much healing
[= I ain't healed much]
[= I have not been healed much]

I looked that up in the OED, regardless of m' language

I understand Adele to be saying that, despite time passing, she doesn't feel much better about the end of the relationship

Possibly, she is a doctor or nurse who isn't able to heal people as much as she used to, but I don't think that is what she's saying

Dave

JungKim · Answer

dave_anonPossibly, she is a doctor or nurse who isn't able to heal people as much as she used to, but I don't think that is what she's saying

Thanks, Dave. I think your understanding of the lyrics is correct.
Now, let's assume that the context is different and now it's her healing someone else, be it a physical or emotional healing. Even in this new context, could the "ain't" in "I ain't done much healing" ever be understood as "am not"?

I'm familiar with constructions like "I'm not done healing (someone)", but can you really add "much" to that construction and say "I'm not done much healing"? Because I'm thinking that somehow adding "much" would make "healing" a noun-like thing.

Dave_anon · Answer

Hi

There you have something different. "I'm not done healing you" is an expression that means "I haven't finished healing you"

That's quite tricky, because you can use "done" in an idiom in English:

- I ain't done with you yet
[= I haven't finished with you yet]

or

Doctor: Do you feel better?
(a) Patient: I ain't done healing yet
[= I haven't finished feeling better yet]

(b) Patient: I ain't done much healing yet
[= I've only started to get better]

We are talking about very idiomatic English, so it's not easy to say. I understand what you mean by noun-like. I think (a) is a participle, belonging to the verb and (b) is a noun-phrase derived from the verb. If someone were starting to climb a mountain:

(a) I haven't finished climbing it yet

(b) I haven't done much climbing yet

When explaining this, different people have different words. Some would say the second is a gerund - a noun that you can use on its own, in different ways, as a noun; but the first is a participle - a verb that is working with another verb

Dave

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you Dave

I ain't done much healing

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