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Use of fixing to at the beginning of a sentence is prevalent in the southern states of Amerca. Is this the right usage? And is this only a southern US thing?

Examples:

Fixing to call her.

Fixing dinner.

Fixing to leave the house.

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    "Fixing to call her" and "fixing to leave the house" ("planning to...") are different from "fixing dinner" ("making...").
    – Kosmonaut
    Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 19:11
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    Not really an official answer, so I'll leave it as a comment. I live in the West, and I don't hear "fix" as in "plan". However, I do hear (and have said) "fixing dinner".
    – Chris
    Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 19:56
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    "Fixin' to make dinner."
    – user362
    Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 21:33
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    None of those are sentences...
    – Joel Spolsky
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 3:42
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    Fixin' to fix dinner.
    – Ullallulloo
    Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 23:23

6 Answers 6

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Is this the right usage?

For "fixing to (do something)", that depends. If I am writing an academic paper or a business-related email, then no. If I am in Boston, or Chicago, or San Francisco and I don't want to sound out of place, then no. But if I am living in the South of the US and I am having casual conversation, then "fixing to" might often be just the right word to use.

"Fixing dinner" is much more prevalent than "fixing to (do something)". I say this because I don't think it would feel out of place in any of the (northern and eastern US) places I have lived (though I would imagine it would get the heaviest use in the South). Still, I probably wouldn't personally use that phrase in formal, written English.

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    P.S. When I asked my (southern) wife if about "fixing to", she corrected my pronunciation; it's supposed to be "fixin' to" :)
    – Kosmonaut
    Commented Sep 18, 2010 at 13:44
  • "Fixing dinner" would not even be out of place in the UK. But I doubt that "fixing to (do something)" would even be understood.
    – TrevorD
    Commented Jul 27, 2013 at 22:15
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"Fixing to ..." is common usage in the southern US, meaning "about to" or "preparing to" do something, but rarely if ever at the beginning of a sentence. Perhaps in answer to a question:

"Whatcha doin', Pa?"

"Fixin' to hunt me some possum."

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  • I'm from the North (Chicago) but now live in the South (Oklahoma). I have heard plenty of people start sentences with "Fixin' to" when it was not a response to a question.
    – michaelkoss
    Commented Sep 21, 2010 at 16:58
  • redneck at its best :D +1
    – roman m
    Commented Oct 21, 2010 at 22:01
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Even though I can be offended by incorrect grammar to the point where it might be obnoxious at times, I still embrace local colloquialisms. Having been born and bred in the Deep South (US), I use "fixing to" regularly. Yes, it means "about to". However, since we don't pronounce hard g's at the end of these expressions, it would be pronounced "fixin’ to".

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It's also appeared in song titles, most notably I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die

I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die is the second album by the influential San Francisco psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish, released in 1967. The title track remains one of the most popular Vietnam protest songs from the 1960s and originally appeared in a 1965 7" EP titled Rag Baby: Songs of Opposition.

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If I'm fixing (or fixin') to do something, fixing is an adverb, answering the question of "when" you're going to start doing something. I'm from the South (Savannah, Georgia) and this is common usage in those parts. This "fixing" is completely different from the verb "fixing" in this sentence: "I'm fixing the broken gate" - How about this one? "I'm fixing to start fixing the broken gate". The first fixing is an adverb, the second one a verb.
Miriam Oglesbee Ellison

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  • What does "fixing" mean as an adverb?
    – user140086
    Commented May 16, 2016 at 3:46
  • @Rathony In the immediate future
    – Andrew Lazarus
    Commented May 16, 2016 at 5:13
  • Can you edit the post? You don't need to write the user name in your post.
    – user140086
    Commented May 16, 2016 at 5:15
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Um.... That's colloquialism. Southern people say "fixin to" while African American people tend to change the expression to "fittin to." They mean the same thing. It essentially means to prepare to do something.

"We were fittin to go to the park, when, suddenly the weather changed, as did our plans."

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  • They shorten it to "fin" quite often as well.
    – Jasmine
    Commented Oct 7, 2014 at 17:05

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