1. Pronunciation
In Caribbean English the stressing is more or less equal on each syllable and in a few cases pitch may play a decisive role in deciding the meaning of a word, for example when the word 'kyan' is pronounced with a high level tone, it means 'can' but with a high falling tone it means 'can't'. /p/ and /q/ are sometimes realised as [t] and [d] (e.g. thick - tick; them - dem), /v/ may be a [b] or a bilabial fricative [ß] (e.g. give - gib or vittles - bittles) and the ending {-ING} is regularly /-kN/ (e.g. talkin'). There is also a simplification of consonant clusters, especially if it is homorganic and voiced after /n/ and /l/ (blind ðblin'), sometimes initial clusters are also simplified (string ðtring). There is a palatalization of /k/ and /g/ + /Ad/, for example car is pronounced as /KJAdR/ and /l/ is always clear in Caribbean English. Some territories in the Caribbean are rhotic (Barbados), some are non-rhotic (Trinidad, the Bahamas) and some are semi-rhotic (Jamaica, Guyana), that is stressed final r as in near is retained. In the basilect sometimes /r/ is realised as /l/ (flitters - fritters).

The vowels in Caribbean English are very different from RP. This is clearly shown in the following examples: The RP /Ek/ and /em/ are [Ed]and [Od], /i/ and /g/ are realised as [A] in Jamaican English, so tap and top become homophones. Schwa is often [A] or [E], /s/ may be back and rounded, /rd/ may be [O] as in Jamaican Creole boddem - 'birds'. In the basilect /jd/ sometimes merges with /Ak/, making boy and buy homophones.

2. Grammar
There are some common features in all pidgins and creoles, which are the following: - reduction of noun and pronoun inflections
- use of particles to replace tenses
- use of repeated forms to intensify adjectives and adverbs

In Caribbean English there is a partially different set of personal pronouns (yu 'you (sing.)' and unu 'you (plur.)'), often without case distinctions (wi 'we, us, our'). Plurals of nouns need not be marked but sometimes they are marked by adding -dem < English them (boddem 'birds'). Possession is marked by juxtaposition: Mieri gyardan 'Mary's yard'.

The past of the verb, when it is marked, is the particle been (or did or had) + verb (e.g. bin gat 'had' or bin si 'saw'), the future is go or gain + verb (sometimes + -in) as in 'ju gwain fáin óut'. Aspect is always expressed, whether it is process (da or duz + verb, sometimes with the ending -in - da slip 'is/was sleeping'), or perfective (dun + verb) of a verb.

Creoles use serial verbs (come and go) for indicating movement towards or away from speaker (e.g. carry it come 'bring it'), or the instrumental tek (e.g. tek whip beat di children dem 'beat them with a whip'). The passive is often expressed with the auxiliary get (The child get bite up), or with impersonal expressions (Dem kill she 'She was killed').
3. Vocabulary

The special vocabulary of CaribE has 2 sources; first is the African languages of the slaves. These are mostly loan transitions (e.g. cry waters 'tears', sweet mout 'flatter' and hard ears 'stubborn') but reduplication (little-little 'very small') is probably also an African carry-over. The other source is non-standard regional English (e.g. lick 'to hit, strike', heap 'a great deal' or dock 'to cut the hair').