My 4 year old grandson asks, “Where you are?” Just now, he asked it of his 7 year old brother. So after his brother answered him (“In the kitchen.”), I asked the 7 year old what the “normal” way would be of asking that question as opposed to the way his brother asked it. I was fishing for conscious awareness (redundant?) of language structure.
The 7 year old (8 in a few days) answered, “Where are you.” Then he added, “You don’t need to ask me that question, Grandpa, it’s too easy. I’m going into third grade.”
True enough.