1318: Habitual Morphology in AAE Jul 20, 2018

The so-called “habitual be” in African American English (AAE) that allows for simple and continuous action to be discussed in the present tense without changing the aspect in the traditional way as has been reviewed here before may be fairly famous, but it is not the only way this happens in AAE. Stemming from the 3rd person singular –s, that same sound can be added to other non-3rd person singular present verbs to indicate habitual effect, and would look something like: ‘I always sits with my friends at lunch’ ‘That’s just how it bes’ ‘Every day he haves to go to work’ Notably again, this is for a specific effect, and is not interchangeable with its own omission. Furthermore, a non-habitual the 3rd person singular present verb would likely not have any –s ending in AAE.