Learn English – Why use ‘I are’ ‘You is’

american-englishslang

I've seen many American and English people writing their sentences like this:

I are…
You is…

While the way I've learned it, and seen most widely used is like this:

I am
You are

Is this some kind of a slang, or have I missed an English lesson?

Best Answer

I am and you are are the Standard English forms. In other dialects, the same form is used for all persons and numbers, so it is unlikely that a speaker of a nonstandard dialect would use both I are and you is. It would normally be are throughout or is throughout. As the sociolinguist Peter Trudgill says here:

Standard English has irregular forms of the verb to be both in the present tense (am, is, are) and in the past (was, were). Many nonstandard dialects have the same form for all persons, such as I be, you be, he be, we be, they be, and I were, you were, he were, we were, they were.

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Learn English – Why are spies called “spooks”

From the OED:

slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.). An undercover agent; a spy.

1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §458/16 ‘Spotter.’ (One who spys upon employees.).. Silent eye, spook, spotter. Ibid. §765/7 Rat, rubber heel, spook, spotter, a person employed to detect irregularities. 1954 People (Austral.) 3 Nov. 24/1 The spooks were senior constables who wore no uniform, worked in pairs and followed constables about the city and suburbs to see if they did their work properly. 1961 John o' London's 20 Apr. 434/1 The idea of making a living as a spy ‘spook’ in current Washington slang is repugnant to most of us. 1966 R. THOMAS Spy in Vodka (1967) vi. 50 I'd like him to get out of the spook business. 1979 L. PRYOR Viper i. 9 ‘My training was also in espionage at the CIA farm.’.. ‘A spook,’ I said in wonder.

This suggests the word would be mainly used in reference to American spies, but I think the 1954 reference is Australians talking about constables, so at least occasionally it has referred to any undercover person.

Not much information on why exactly the word was chosen, but it probably was an easy jump from "ghost that haunts people" to "mysterious secret agent who spies on people".

Learn English – the history and geographic area of the word “finna?”

This is more of a side note, but when I first saw someone use the word 'finna', I though they had made a typo and meant to write 'gonna'!

F is next to G on the Qwerty keyboard.
I is next to O on the Qwerty keyboard.
N            N
N            N
A            A

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Learn English – Why are spies called “spooks”

Learn English – the history and geographic area of the word “finna?”

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