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So, I read the sentence "But we are also be talking about ...[a subject]" somewhere and at that moment I just thought it's a mistake. However I googled it and interestingly found many similar cases!
Now, would you let me know how is this sentence composed and what's the role of 'be' in this sentence, please.
I've already heard something like "we will also be talking about", but how should I interpret this case?
And the last but not least question is that is it possible to extend it to other tenses and say something like "we were also be talking about..."?

Please feel free to edit the title of this question and remove this sentence consequently as I could not find a better one.

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    I Googled "But we are also be talking about" and got just seven results (two being for this very question, and at least one duplicate entry in the others). Comparing that to about 522,000 results for "But we are also talking about", it seems to me this question is General Reference even for ELL.
    – FumbleFingers
    Sep 16, 2014 at 15:41
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a typographical or transcription error.
    – user3169
    Sep 16, 2014 at 18:03

1 Answer 1

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Yes, this is a mistake. I can see 6 Google results for "we are also be talking about", but four of those are from the same (possibly Chinese?) source, one also looks to be Chinese, and the remaining link is an automatically-generated transcript from a video, and therefore cannot be trusted to be correct.

The correct phrasing is "But we are also talking about...". The extra "be" is wrong because the verb "to be" is already present in the form of "are".

To answer your remaining questions: "we will also be talking about" is correct because "will" is necessary to signal that we are talking about the future. Other tenses don't use "be" like this, so "we were also be talking about" is incorrect.

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    @mok I only get 18 results for we are be talking and I agree with ZsigE; this is not a common usage. We will be talking..., we are talking..., we are going to be talking..., we have been talking... are all 'normal' uses. So +1 from me.
    – Frank
    Sep 16, 2014 at 13:13
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    @mok As far as I can tell, the "we are be talking" is either a non-native error, or just an error in general. The only dialect of English I can think of that might get close is African American Vernacular English, which would render it something like "we be talking about", but neither of your links are written in it.
    – Tory
    Sep 16, 2014 at 13:35
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    @mok I've emailed Wealden Council to ask them if that is a commonly used phrase in East Sussex these days. Hopefully we might a reply.
    – Frank
    Sep 16, 2014 at 13:51
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    @mok I am a native speaker of British English, if that makes any difference. The Wealden Council page looks to me like they started with the phrase "What we will be doing" and then tried to change it to "What we are doing", but left the "be" in by mistake.
    – ZsigE
    Sep 16, 2014 at 13:58
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    @mok I have received an impressively rapid reply from Wealden Council which suggests that they will be correcting the sentence in the near future.
    – Frank
    Sep 16, 2014 at 14:37

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