Off-Topic: The American Verb

By John Derbyshire

10/25/2013

Pursuant to my TakiMag column on language, a reader reminds me that while Hungarian may have 35 noun cases to our two, English makes the verbs work harder.

We even have some entirely American tenses:

the imperfect reparative: “I’m fixin’ to … “

the athletic nostalgic: “I used ta could … “

and my favorite, peculiar to the Southeast I think:

the ascending additive: “He up and … “

USA! USA!

< Previous

Next >


This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.