this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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Are you a active MVP? (i.imgur.com)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

An* active An* MVP

These the original comments you were looking for? 🙃

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah, OP,

  1. please, use the indefinite articles correctly, if you decided it's more appropriate to use them.
  2. The original phrase was "you're the real MVP", e.g., the definite article was being used.

Sorry, I probably shoulda written "wrong use of a meme OP GTFO" (sic!).

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I could be wrong, but I believe "a" is often used in African American English (which—and again, I could be wrong—I believe is the preferred term these days by linguists, rather than AAVE) even when the proceeding word begins with a vowel. Considering the guy in the picture is black and, based on the fact that he's standing in front of NBA signs, presumably American, using "a" in this meme makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

If we are getting in the weeds here, the might be a more appropriate article since the most valuable is often no longer indefinite. In an AAVE context & using article ‘a/an’, I would assume “you a MVP” omitting the copula, not conjugating it like “you are a MVP”. The current expression feels uncanny.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Oh, nice catch! I'm not American, so don't have an enormous amount of exposure to AAE. Thanks for the added detail!

And yes, you're definitely right that "the" would be more appropriate for standard American (and British, and Australian, etc.) English.