Habitual be

From Niggapedia, the free encyclopedia

Habitual be is a grammatical feature of African American English that can mark a recurring action or a usual state.[1]

Usage

“He be at the spades table” describes where you can usually find him. “He’s at the spades table” describes where he is now. These are two different pieces of intelligence.

Grammar

The form be stays the same across subjects. This lets a speaker distinguish a recurring pattern from a situation happening at the moment.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Yale Grammatical Diversity Project, “Invariant be.”
Categories: Slang and speech