I'm are

[Wilson Gray]

I'm familiar with "I'm is," but neither "I are" nor "I'm are" sound
familiar to me. However, as I've noted elsewhere, I've aged out of
what's currently hip.

-Wilson

On 9/6/07, Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Scot LaFaive <spiderrmonkey at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      I'm are
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In a recent song by Timbaland ("The Way You Are"), there's an odd piece of
> grammar. The course is as follows:
>
> "Baby if you strip, you can get a tip
> 'Cause I like you just the way you are
> I'm about to strip and I'm well equipped
> Can you handle me the way I'm are?"
>
> Some websites say the last line is "Can you handle me the way I are?" but it
> sounds to me like "I'm are" (and some websites agree). Aside from the usage
> of "I" and "are" together, the really cool/crazy/bizarre thing here is the
> use of a double "to be" verb.
>
> Question: is the chunk "I are" common at all in Black English or was it just
> made up here solely for rhyming purposes?
>
> Scot
>
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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