| Texas | Midwest |
| y'all | you guys |
| parking garage (even if the whole building is used only for parking) | parking structure |
| tea | sweet iced tea |
| iced tea | sweet iced tea |
| hot tea | tea |
| fixin' | (no equivalent) |
| sliding glass door | door wall |
| coke | pop |
| using regular verbs as reflexives | use of the pronoun "myself" where needed |
| omission of "to be" | use of "to be" |
| vehicle (with "h" pronounced) | car |
Examples
in Texas:
A: "What kind of coke do you want?"
B: "I'll take a 7-Up"
in Michigan:
A: "what kind of pop would you like?"
Commentary: 7-Up is not Coke!! It's not even cola! For people not from the midwest, they wonder what the heck is "pop"?
in Texas:
I'm fixin' to go to bed now
anywhere else:
I'm going to bed now.
in Texas:
That cat's fur needs brushed. (note: real-life example!)
anywhere else:
That cat's fur needs to be brushed.
Commentary: I would imagine leaving out the "to be" is probably grammatically correct in some language (not English)
in Texas:
I'ma drink me a cup of coffee.
I'm finn'ina buy me a new ve-hi-cle.
anywhere else:
I'm going to drink a cup of coffee.
I'm going to buy myself a new car.
Commentary: Do we even have reflexive verbs in English? I wouldn't even know how to explain this if I hadn't studied Spanish.
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