Comments on: Where you At?

By: bobbquackenbush

bobbquackenbush — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:44:24 +0000

The phrase is between quotation marks which would indicate that the phrase is being acknowledged by the writer as being non-standardized English. Perhaps it’s a grammarian texting a fellow grammarian with a grammatical joke?

By: Jonathan Rothwell

Jonathan Rothwell — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:37:51 +0000

Corrections could be:

Where are you at?
Where are you?
You are at where?
Where are you, At? (if the addressee is called ‘At’)
Where are you at, At? (ditto)

By: Macy

Macy — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:25:01 +0000

I don’t like the missing verb. I don’t really care that they’ve ended the sentance with a preposition. I’m much more concerned with the complete lack of the “are.”

I’m lame enough to say, “where are you?” I guess I’ll never master this AAVE. But then, I talk good.

By: Saemundr

Saemundr — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:27:21 +0000

‘At’ is a person.

It’s still poor grammar but hey – we is who we is.

IMO, it should read ‘Where are you, At?’

By: Voyagerfan5761

Voyagerfan5761 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:52:30 +0000

Agreed that “At” shouldn’t be capitalized, but the phrase itself is just a colloquialism.

By: Adam S

Adam S — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:25:45 +0000

@BG!: genius.

By: BG!

BG! — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:25:17 +0000

I reckon you’ve all missed the point. What she’s trying to say is “Wear your hat”.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:07:26 +0000

I didn’t realize that AAVE had consistent rules (or a proper name!) that could be analyzed because I always figured it was just random bad English. My cobbled together, self-taught linguistics has led me astray!

By: eg

eg — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:38:46 +0000

The syntax here is just fine, actually. You have to remember that this is a phrase not from Standard English, but from AAVE (this is the proper name for what many improperly call “Ebonics”). In AAVE, there is no need to use the verb ‘is’ in sentences such as this. This is also not uncommon in the world’s languages. Russian, for example, does not use a present tense copula. In Russian, “house blue” is what you say for the English equivalent “The house is blue.” This is not a mistake at all.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:05:23 +0000

While true this is a marketing slogan, it’s still completely and horribly wrong. It is amazing that so many mistakes can be made in a three word sentence and that people willingly say this sort of thing on a daily basis. I’m all for an evolving language, but not at the expense of basic syntactical structure!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:54:54 +0000

So anyway, where *is* she at?

An abandoned warehouse, by the look of it. I get the feeling that this little phone-initiated encounter is going to end in an episode of C.S.I.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:52:59 +0000

This particular hanging preposition is redundant. You can’t physically exist without being at some particular location. Something like “That’s not something I’m going to put up with” sounds a lot better to my ears, because the “with” is necessary. In addition, the sentence lacks an explicit verb.

Probably not our strongest case — but don’t worry, we have plenty of good ones in the queue. Keep sending them!

By: Naked Bunny with a Whip

Naked Bunny with a Whip — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:33:23 +0000

It’s irksome, but I hear people talk like that a fair amount.

So anyway, where *is* she at?

By: Adam S

Adam S — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:21:16 +0000

Sorry, I *love* this blog, but this one is lame.

“Where you at?” is clearly informal, conversational English. It’s not an error; it was intended to be written that way, and furthermore, the use of caps was likely an aesthetic decision.

C’mon Mark, there’s better out there. I even sent one better than this.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:14:47 +0000

I be at the libary, touchin yo buks. Where you at?

By: Jonathan Rothwell

Jonathan Rothwell — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:57:35 +0000

Actually, a preposition at the end of a sentence is just fine – the idea that it’s grammatically incorrect stems from the fact that in Latin, you can’t have a hanging preposition.

Winston Churchill put this firmly in its place when annotating a sentence that had been clumsily rearranged, scribbling, ‘this is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.’

By: Dustin L

Dustin L — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:56:50 +0000

Hmmm. That should read “please don’t,” but I suppose you can read it as sarcasm.

By: GuanoLad

GuanoLad — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:56:14 +0000

Where you At? Apparently she’s waiting for her dealer.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:55:31 +0000

Really? I had high hopes for this blog, but this is kind of lame.

By: Dustin L

Dustin L — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:55:29 +0000

Okay, that’s not an error; it’s a colloquialism. Granted, it’s one that’s been appropriated for an annoying ad campaign, but it still doesn’t belong here. I’ve enjoyed this site thus far, but please start going down this pretentious road. Nothing will make me lose interest as quickly.