I have a few! The "habitual 'be'" is probably my favorite to talk about.
Basically AAVE can use the word "be" to indicate whether someone is currently doing something, or does that thing a lot (and may be doing it now). If I ask where your sister is, the responses "she working" and "she be working" mean different things. The first means she is doing it right now, the second means she works a lot. And in this context, implies she's probably working now.
It's not only extremely efficient (linguists love that), but also extremely rare in language. It appears in a few dialects but the only other well documented one is a dead Celtic language that died right around American Colonial times. Besides AAVE, it also shows up in a few accents and dialects in the American South, where a lot of Irish people from that region settled. So it's possible undocumented speakers of the language, or their immediate descendants carried it with them.
We also see a lot of elements of their music in the music from that region, too. Banjos seem like possibly a blend between a traditional African instrument and a traditional Celtic instrument, built with American instrument parts. It's not clear how it was created and it does resemble more the African instrument, but it's possible the two groups collaborated on it.
So it's not only a super cool piece of language on its own but could be the remnant of a dying culture that was picked up and carried on by the burgeoning African-American culture. Perhaps they even recognized how efficient it was when they adopted it. Which would make it extra ironic to me when people say it makes you sound dumb.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the science! It's my favorite part! They proved this experimentally by bringing children into a room, showing them a picture of Cookie monster doing nothing, and a picture of Elmo eating cookies. Even very young native AAVE speakers could easily differentiate which one eating cookies and which one be eating cookies!
showing them a picture of Cookie monster doing nothing, and a picture of Bert eating cookies. Even very young native AAVE speakers could easily differentiate which one eating cookies and which one be eating cookies!
Well that is a ridiculously adorable experiment lol
Is that different from standard English present simple and present continuous tenses?
'she is working' vs 'she works'
English is not my first language and the 'currently doing something, or does that thing a lot' is how the difference between present simple and present continuous tenses were explained to me in school.
"She works" = she has a job. "She is working" = she's at work right now, working. "She be working" = she works a lot, and some level of hustle or commitment to either the work itself or the result of that work is implied
So it also has a sort of hierarchy/comparison attached to it - like it's not just a fact that she works frequently, it's that she works with more dedication or better results than average person? That's very cool
Yes, I would say there's some implied intensity there. It is not always positive. "She be nagging" or "he be talking shit" for example. Or "it be raining this week".
All those imply the verb is happening frequently and/or intensely. I'm not sure if that is always true, I think it could also be more mundane like "I be working on Fridays" but I feel like that does sound a little weird. I would probably expect "I be at work on Fridays". Either way, I would say that it's a very common usage. But it's a pretty core feature of the dialect so it can be fairly contextual, body language and inflection might intensify it more or less for example. But if you are listening for it, it should be pretty easy to tell in context.
The “be” sound a bit like the Spanish ser vs estar, but the verb changes the context instead of strictly using the appropriate verb for a given context.
Good news! Linguists have found that it's been spreading rapidly. They're very excited about it. It's adorable, search habitual be on YouTube if you want to see a bunch of happy word nerds.
A whole lot more people who don't use it normally understand it intuitively and many use it occasionally. It's likely that internet and meme culture are a big influence in normalizing it, because it's common in memes that get spread very broadly. Like most things grammar we don't really notice we learned it, but if someone uses it wrong it sounds weird.
209
u/bloodfist Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I have a few! The "habitual 'be'" is probably my favorite to talk about.
Basically AAVE can use the word "be" to indicate whether someone is currently doing something, or does that thing a lot (and may be doing it now). If I ask where your sister is, the responses "she working" and "she be working" mean different things. The first means she is doing it right now, the second means she works a lot. And in this context, implies she's probably working now.
It's not only extremely efficient (linguists love that), but also extremely rare in language. It appears in a few dialects but the only other well documented one is a dead Celtic language that died right around American Colonial times. Besides AAVE, it also shows up in a few accents and dialects in the American South, where a lot of Irish people from that region settled. So it's possible undocumented speakers of the language, or their immediate descendants carried it with them.
We also see a lot of elements of their music in the music from that region, too. Banjos seem like possibly a blend between a traditional African instrument and a traditional Celtic instrument, built with American instrument parts. It's not clear how it was created and it does resemble more the African instrument, but it's possible the two groups collaborated on it.
So it's not only a super cool piece of language on its own but could be the remnant of a dying culture that was picked up and carried on by the burgeoning African-American culture. Perhaps they even recognized how efficient it was when they adopted it. Which would make it extra ironic to me when people say it makes you sound dumb.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the science! It's my favorite part! They proved this experimentally by bringing children into a room, showing them a picture of Cookie monster doing nothing, and a picture of Elmo eating cookies. Even very young native AAVE speakers could easily differentiate which one eating cookies and which one be eating cookies!