# I'm a \_\_\_\_, you're a \_\_\_\_, he's a \_\_\_\_. What's the name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287 "2008-10-30T18:29:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/1 "2008-10-30T18:29:40Z")
What is the name of this figure of speech? “I’m a \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, you’re a \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_, he’s a \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_”, in which the blanks are filled by three related terms that range from laudatory (I’m a) through derogatory (he’s a). There was recently a whole thread of these, and I automatically used the trope to reply to someone’s post on another thread. IS there a name for this framework? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/2 "2008-10-30T18:35:44Z")
On the series “Yes, Minister”, they were jokingly referred to as “irregular verbs” (well, that and the trope was set up to use verb phrases, rather than noun phrases). ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/3 "2008-10-30T18:41:53Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > On the series “Yes, Minister”, they were jokingly referred to as “irregular verbs” (well, that and the trope was set up to use verb phrases, rather than noun phrases). Yes, that’s the way I’ve seen it used, as in “I give confidential briefings; you leak; he is being prosecuted under Section 2A of the Offical Secrets Act”. I don’t think it has a name, so I’ll call it hierarchical conjugation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/4 "2008-10-30T18:59:32Z")
I call it “subjective adjectivism” and started a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=482380) in the Game Room for it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/5 "2008-10-30T19:03:19Z")
I just think of that old Dr. Pepper commercial from 1980 with a singin’, dancin’ David Naughton. ---
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/6 "2008-10-30T19:13:14Z")
I’m a dude, you’re a dude, he’s a dude? ---
**Author:** ![Dreamy\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dreamy\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreamy_B)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/7 "2008-10-30T20:02:46Z")
Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/8 "2008-10-30T21:37:12Z")
I agree it completely fits in with the “Yes, Minister” thing, but I have a notion at the back of my mind that it could also have originated in “Punch” or “Private” Eye. And I _think_ they just called it irregular verbs. Any other U.K. people seem to recall that? Little column towards the back of whichever magazine it was? Ack, pardon me, this is turning into stream of thought stuff, but I NOW know that what I have in mind there was the same irregular verb game but done in Franglais, so they might have been ripping it off from “Yes Minister”. Hmmm. Still, I’m going for the "appeared in magazine and was simply called “irregular verbs” idea. (And here’s a problem, a bijou little problemette. You evil people have _forced_ me just now to go and pick up my copy of “The Complete 'Yes Minister” and I might just feel a need to read through the whole thing. AND I even braved a tiny little spider to find it!) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/9 "2008-10-30T21:51:51Z")
One example that comes to mind goes like: Je suis voyageur. Vous etes touriste. Ils Watneysredbarrellent. I am a traveller. You are a tourist. They are merely loud ignorant louts who are beneath both of us. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/10 "2008-10-30T23:03:41Z")
The second thing I thought of when I saw the thread title (the first was the Dr. Pepper jingle) was the scene between Data and Guinan on ST:TNG: Guinan: “You’re a 'droid, I’m a 'noid.” Data: “I am sorry if I have offended you, Guinan!” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-____-youre-a-____-hes-a-____-whats-the-name/470287/11 "2008-10-30T23:59:10Z")
Do Ima Hogg and Ura Hogg have a brother named Heeza?