African American Vernacular English

-Copula absence: To omit any form of the verb to be in sentences that

requires a form of to be in Standard English. She going or They hungry. But
am and past tense was and were are never left out; thus you would never
hear sentences like *I going or *They hungry last night. The phenomenon is
also observed in questions: Who you? ("Who are you?") and Where you at?
("Where are you?")

Habitual be: is the nonstandard use of zero copula or an invariant be to

mark habitual or extended actions in the present tense, instead of using the
Standard English inflected forms of be, such as is and are. I be singin’, We
be playing basketball, or She be working late.

3rd person singular–s deletion: Another common feature of AAE is omitting

the –s with verbs following a third person singular subject. He jump high.

Double negatives: Negative concord if the sentence is negative, all

negatable forms is negated. Ain’t nobody can beat me. There is also "triple"
or "multiple negation", as in the phrase I don't know nothing about no one no
more.

Remote phrase marker: With non-stative verbs, the role of been is simple:
it places the action in the distant past, or represents total completion of the
action. A Standard English equivalent is to add "a long time ago” Oh, I been
had this dress, or She been told me that.

/d/, /t/, and /f/: distinctive pronunciation featured. pronouncing these,

with, and birthday with a “d”, “t”, or “f” replacing the “th” sounds of
Mainstream English (“dese,”“wit,” and“birfday”).

g-dropping: at the end of –ing words, as in fishin and fightin.

Negative indicator: Use of ain't is a general negative indicator. It can be
used where Standard English would use am not, isn't, aren't, haven't. Some
speakers of AAVE also use ain't instead of don't, doesn't, or didn't (e.g., I
ain't know that).

Dropping of consonant sounds: The dropping of the second (or third)

consonant sound in a string of consonants occurring at the end of words. The
word mist may be pronounced as “mis.”

Reduction of word-final consonant clusters: certain members of the

cluster, such as stops, are dropped. Therefore, words such as desk, post,
and walked are pronounced as , , and .