Mexican X-plainer: Chingue y Chingue

One of my favorite things about my dialect of Spanish (Northern Mexican / Mexican American) is an odd construction that emphasizes (often irritating) repetition.

I call it the “chingue y chingue” form, from the common vulgar expression for “riding someone’s ass” / “being fucking annoying.”

The form uses the auxiliary verb “estar” (to be) as well as quasi-auxiliaries like “andar” and “seguir.” But rather than combining with the gerund (a main verb ending in -ando or -iendo, like English -ing) to construct the normal progressive tenses, the…