Meaning of 'a'

Question

Hello,"I'm a try to do it again""All the things that I'm a-sayin' an' a-many times more."What does 'a' mean? Where does it come from? And when do you use it?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

geoyoWhat does 'a' mean?

Here it means nothing; it is merely being used to counterfeit a socio-regional dialect.

geoyoWhere does it come from?

It comes from certain old socio-regional dialects in the US and (I presume) in the UK.

a-
a reduced form of the Old English preposition 'on', meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,”... in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing ( 'set the bells a-ringing' )

geoyoAnd when do you use it?

When writing dialog for a character using this old socio-regional dialect.

Geoyo · Answer

a reduced form of the Old English preposition 'on', meaning “on,” “in,” “into,” “to,” “toward,”... in archaic and dialectal use before a present participle in -ing ( 'set the bells a-ringing' )

But how does this make sense?

"Imma try to do it again" means "I'm on/in/to try to do it again"?
"All the things that I'm a-sayin'" means "All the things that I'm on/in/to sayin'"?

What is it supposed to mean? For me, none of these make any sense.

Mister Micawber · Answer

'Imma' is another attempt at producing dialect.

"Imma try to do it again" means "I'm going to try to do it again."
"All the things that I'm a-sayin'" means "All the things that I'm saying."

Geoyo · Answer

So in the following sentences

"All the things that I'm a-sayin"
"Set the bells a-ringing"

'a' basically means nothing and it's just kind of a phonetic addition? Is this correct?

Mister Micawber · Answer

geoyo Is this correct?

Nowadays, yes.

Geoyo · Answer

Thanks for your explanations!

Meaning of 'a'

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions