Learn English – Do people in Miami really talk like they do in the television series “Dexter”

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as I'm far from being good English speaker, I use to watch series to improve my skills. I'm fan of various genres, from Star Trek to How I Met Your Mother and I can say until now, I felt "aligned" with it, meaning I knew why such and such grammar was used, when it was slang, shorter form etc.

Just recently I've picked up Dexter, nice one btw, and I can't stop wondering. People there (actors) speak completely different than what I was used to listen to. I don't mean accent or pronunciation (although I can see differences here, too) like in thread Why are movies so hard to understand (and what can you do about it)? but more like the actual (lack of) grammar.

For example, people many times skip words ("[are] You [willing to] be there?" or "See [you] tomorrow?") and what was most surprising for me, they rarely use past and future tenses. So instead of let's say "You have had a fight?" actor just asks "You fighting?" or instead of "Have you you told her that?" just "You tell her?" or similar (yes, it's often combined with mentioned skipping of some words).

So my question is, is it really some kind of Miami slang (with influence of immigrants from Cuba who don't speak so well English) or it's just the series or it's just me being completely wrong?

Best Answer

It sounds to me like people are just leaving out words, as opposed to completely violating the grammar. This often happens in conversation.

  • "You fighting?" -> "Are you fighting?" (as in a continuous disagreement instead of a momentary battle)
  • "You tell her?" -> "Did you tell her?"
  • "You be there?" -> "Will you be there?"

It seems like people are just leaving out the helping verbs. It's certainly not proper but it's acceptable in casual conversation.

As for whether or not Miamians speak this way, I can't say, but I'd guess lots of native English speakers will speak this way from time to time. I'm in Canada and I would not find any of this speech surprising or difficult.

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