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Originally Posted by Guinevere
Frodo tells Strider already in Bree:" You began to talk to me like the Bree folk, but your voice has changed ." And really, even then Aragorn uses "cannot" instead of "can't", "do not" instead of "don't", "let us" instead of "let's", "I will" instead of "I'll" "I think not" instead of "I don't think so" "have I not?" instead of "haven't I?" (In fact, only Hobbits and Bree-folk speak like that)
To me all this makes his speech sound more noble and ancient, and not commonplace.
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Originally Posted by Rumil
...Aragorn does seem to switch between 'casual' and 'heroic' speech patterns depending on who he's chatting with.
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I saw this, too; Aragorn's change in manner of speech is at times very noticeable, to Frodo as well as the readers, apparently. (However, his 'default' style - sans contractions, with more inversions etc - does seem to be so that he sounds less commonplace. Especially when he is Strider and his true identity as yet unrevealed, it hints at his nobility.) Tolkien explains this in Appendix F:
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It will be noticed that Hobbits such as Frodo, and other persons such as Gandalf and Aragorn, do not always use the same style. This is intentional[...]It was in any case natural for much-travelled folk to speak more or less in the manner of those among whom they found themselves, especially in the case of men who, like Aragorn, were often at pains to conceal their origin and their business.
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