A method for determining a context for coding is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating a plurality of results by examining a prediction mode for each of a plurality of neighbor blocks to a current block in a bitstream for digital video, wherein at least one of the neighbor blocks is subpartitioned, (B) generating a plurality of first variables based on the results and (C) coding the bitstream using a binary arithmetic coding based on a particular context among a plurality of context determined from the first variables.