There are several phrases used by Cajuns that are not used by non-Cajun speakers. Some common phrases are listed below:
Zero copula Cajun English also has the tendency to drop the auxiliary verb
to be in the third person singular (
is) and the second person singular and plurals. For example,
She pretty and
What we doing?.
When you went? Instead of "When did you go?"
Bare-root verb forms -s and
-ed word endings for the third person singular and the past tense morpheme tend to be dropped. Native Francophone men among the earliest Cajun English speakers had a strong tendency to drop
-s and
-ed endings. These men dropped
-s endings at a rate (65%) similar to
AAVE, and dropped
-ed endings at an even higher rate (81%) than with AAVE. Younger speakers continue to drop
-s and
-ed at lower rates, but still more often than Southern American English, even when they spoke English natively. This has been attributed to morphological influences from French, The final word in the statement is stressed, while
yeah/
no are given a falling intonation.
I told you not to. You gonna regret it, yeah! "at" with "where" At can be added to
where questions as an intensifier, a trait held in common with New Orleans English.
Where my shoes at, baw? "to" instead of "at" Cajun English speakers may use
to instead of
at when referring to locations.
I was to the store when I saw her. "for" instead of "at" Cajun English speakers exhibit a tendency to use
for instead of
at when referring to time. ''I'll be there for 2 o'clock.'' Given the connection between Cajun English and Acadia, this is also seen among
Canadian English speakers.
Colloquial Constructions "Come see" is the equivalent of saying "come here" regardless of whether or not there is something to "see." The French "
viens voir," or "
venez voir," meaning "come" or "please come," is often used in Cajun French to ask people to come. This phrasing may have its roots in "viens voir
ici" (), the French word for "here." To "save the dishes" means to "put away the dishes into cupboards where they belong after being washed". While dishes are the most common subject, it is not uncommon to save other things. For example: Save up the clothes, saving the tools, save your toys. "Getting/Running down at the store" involves stepping out of a car to enter the store. Most commonly, the driver will ask the passenger, "Are you getting/running down (also)?" One can get down at any place, not just the store. The phrase "get down" may come from the act of "getting down from a horse" as many areas of Acadiana were only accessible by horse well into the 20th century. It also may originate from the French language
descendre meaning
to get down, much as some English-Spanish bilingual speakers say "get down," from the Spanish
bajar. "Makin' groceries" is a
calque from French to mean the act of buying groceries, rather than that of manufacturing them. The confusion originates from the direct translation of the American French phrase "faire l'épicerie" which is understood by speakers to mean "to do the grocery shopping." "Faire" as used in the French language can mean either "to do" or "to make." == In popular culture ==