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by esperent 338 days ago
Even Irish people whose main language since birth is English do this. There's a verb in Gaeilge which does exist in English but is translated as "does be". Examples:

- He does be eating his breakfast

- She does be out walking the dog

It's the continuous/habitual form of to be, so the implication is that she does be walking the dog everyday, or regularly. He does be eating his breakfast everyday.

The interesting thing is that you'll meet Irish people who were never fluent in Irish - learned it in school, sure, but never spoke it daily - who still use this conjugation when speaking English.

2 comments

It really do be like that sometimes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitual_be#Hypothesized_sourc...

yes, the aave usage does potentially be having its origins in he

That seems like the present progressive to me.

<present tense be verb> <gerund>

I am eating his breakfast.

She is out walking the dog.

https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/present_progressive...

To argue with myself, smarter people than I have claimed the same construction as yours in AAVE. Check the section on tense here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Vernacular_En...