Hable y hable
Thu, Jan 28, 2016
Here's an informal grammatical construction I have never seen described in a textbook.
- Estuvo pregunte y pregunte. He kept asking and asking.
- Le estuve toque y toque y no abrió. I knocked repeatedly but he never answered.
- Estuvimos en la madrugada hablando y hablando y hable y hable y hable. We talked into the wee hours of the night.
- Hoy mis compañeras de la escuela estuvieron insiste e insiste. Today my classmates just kept insisting. (overheard at the gym)
- Desde hace rato te oigo chille y chille. I've heard you bawling for a while now.
- Estás trague y trague y trague. You're stuffing your face (with food).
- Estoy llore y llore. I can't stop crying.
- He estado piense y piense en él. I can't stop thinking about him.
- Estuviste tose y tose. You were coughing a lot.
- Estuvieron coge y coge. I couldn't sleep because the couple in the next room was having sex the whole time.
- Estabas chingue y chingue. In my dream you wouldn't stop bugging me.
Some observations:
- The first verb is often estar, rendered in the preterite.
- The second verb describes an action that is repetitive or continuous.
- The action is often annoying or unwanted: crying, shouting, asking too many questions.
- The form of the second verb is not present subjunctive. You can see this by considering those verbs ending in -er or -ir: tose y tose, coge y coge. You don't say: *tosa y tosa. The ending is always -e, regardless of whether the infinitive ends in -ar, -er or -ir.
From this last point, we can conclude that this is an inflectional form distinct from those of the verb paradigm of the standard language.