Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[StefanAVFC]

Stop spelling your daughter's name Esmé. You're a 25 year old bloke from Lichfield.

[villa4europe]

12 hours ago, Meath_Villan said:

The fake laughter in tv shows ....just watched 10 mins of citizen Khan and it was total tripe , someone went into overdrive on the fake laughter button 

i watched ten minutes of it last night, utter garbage and shockingly racist, but he's not white so it must be ok...

 

[troon_villan]

Loose instead of lose still kills me.

Literally.

[HanoiVillan]

5 hours ago, limpid said:

I mind those a lot less though - they are really to do with accents. "off of" is just wrong.

What do you mean by wrong? 'Off of' isn't grammatically wrong at all. 'Should of' and 'could of' actually are grammatically wrong - modal verbs are always followed by a bare infinitive in English, a very basic rule. There's nothing actually wrong with 'off of'. 

[mjmooney]

I mind those a lot less though - they are really to do with accents. "off of" is just wrong.

What do you mean by wrong? 'Off of' isn't grammatically wrong at all. 'Should of' and 'could of' actually are grammatically wrong - modal verbs are always followed by a bare infinitive in English, a very basic rule. There's nothing actually wrong with 'off of'. 

It's redundancy. 'Off' does not require another conjunction. "He stepped off the boat".

[limpid]

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

What do you mean by wrong? 'Off of' isn't grammatically wrong at all. 'Should of' and 'could of' actually are grammatically wrong - modal verbs are always followed by a bare infinitive in English, a very basic rule. There's nothing actually wrong with 'off of'. 

Either it should be "off" or "from" depending on context. It's never correct to use "off of".

[HanoiVillan]

8 minutes ago, limpid said:

Either it should be "off" or "from" depending on context. It's never correct to use "off of".

You keep using the word 'correct', but that's the problem. It's dialectical language. Maybe you think it's not 'correct' for Yorkshiremen to say 'in't' instead of 'in the', but it's what they say, and you probably can't persuade them to stop. 'Off of' is dialectical language, most commonly found in American English. It occurs commonly across large regions of the east and south of the country, but also occurs in British English too ('off of' can be found in written works by both Shakespeare and Pepys, it's not new). 

However, it breaks no grammar rules. Two prepositions can occur next to each other without any difficulty - I realised this as I pulled the car out of the garage. No grammar was harmed in uttering 'off of'. 

[limpid]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

You keep using the word 'correct', but that's the problem. It's dialectical language. Maybe you think it's not 'correct' for Yorkshiremen to say 'in't' instead of 'in the', but it's what they say, and you probably can't persuade them to stop. 'Off of' is dialectical language, most commonly found in American English. It occurs commonly across large regions of the east and south of the country, but also occurs in British English too ('off of' can be found in written works by both Shakespeare and Pepys, it's not new). 

However, it breaks no grammar rules. Two prepositions can occur next to each other without any difficulty - I realised this as I pulled the car out of the garage. No grammar was harmed in uttering 'off of'. 

I'm not sure why you are introducing spoken language - presumably as a straw man. Interesting that you couldn't think of an example involving the phrase which pisses me off that shouldn't,

[HanoiVillan]

27 minutes ago, limpid said:

I'm not sure why you are introducing spoken language - presumably as a straw man. Interesting that you couldn't think of an example involving the phrase which pisses me off that shouldn't,

What - why a straw man? English is both written and spoken. In your initial post, you didn't specify whether 'off of' pissed you off in its written form or its spoken, so I addressed spoken English as this is where 'off of' is more common, because it is dialectic and therefore informal. Firstly, I'm defending its use in spoken English, as it is dialectic language, and this shouldn't piss you off any more than somebody speaking with a Birmingham accent should. Secondly, I'm highlighting the point that when you say it is 'incorrect', you aren't right. Grammatically it is not incorrect. I provided a parallel example with two prepositions next to each other as 'off of' could only be grammatically incorrect if prepositions cannot coexist, but obviously they can. I can only demonstrate that with an example using different words - otherwise I wouldn't be proving the point. 

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

Weddings. 

[limpid]

34 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

What - why a straw man? English is both written and spoken. In your initial post, you didn't specify whether 'off of' pissed you off in its written form or its spoken, so I addressed spoken English as this is where 'off of' is more common, because it is dialectic and therefore informal. Firstly, I'm defending its use in spoken English, as it is dialectic language, and this shouldn't piss you off any more than somebody speaking with a Birmingham accent should. Secondly, I'm highlighting the point that when you say it is 'incorrect', you aren't right. Grammatically it is not incorrect. I provided a parallel example with two prepositions next to each other as 'off of' could only be grammatically incorrect if prepositions cannot coexist, but obviously they can. I can only demonstrate that with an example using different words - otherwise I wouldn't be proving the point. 

At the risk of repeating myself, please note the phrase "that shouldn't" in the thread title, which I highlighted in my previous reply for emphasis.

You trying to defend it makes no difference. It still pisses me off, but shouldn't.

[blandy]

37 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I addressed spoken English as this is where 'off of' is more common

It's weird isn't it? We say "she got out of the car", but don't like "she got off of the roof of the car". We'd say "she got in the car", or "get out the car"but probably should say "she got into [in to] the car" or "get out from the car".

It's not very consistent in terms of rules. But get out of sounds wrong and is wrong when written (IMO).

[blandy]

And while we're on stupid phraseology, the thing that bugged me most in the election a few months ago, wasn't the horrible effing tories* or mad UKIPs it was that suddenly everyone started saying "he's scared to debate Milliband" when they always used to say "scared to debate with Miliband".

And people have started saying "that speaks to / I can't speak to that" instead of "that speaks about/ I can't speak about that".

And "he promised to write me" rather than "he promised to write to me"

I blame the Rolling Stones, mainly. Them and progress. Down with that sort of thing.

 

* it was the horrible effing tories, really.

[mjmooney]

And while we're on stupid phraseology, the thing that bugged me most in the election a few months ago, wasn't the horrible effing tories* or mad UKIPs it was that suddenly everyone started saying "he's scared to debate Milliband" when they always used to say "scared to debate with Miliband".

And people have started saying "that speaks to / I can't speak to that" instead of "that speaks about/ I can't speak about that".

And "he promised to write me" rather than "he promised to write to me"

I blame the Rolling Stones, mainly. Them and progress. Down with that sort of thing.

 

* it was the horrible effing tories, really.

That's Americanisms again. They protest the war, where we would protest about the war. They write you, where we would write to you, and so on.

[coda]

Thought I'd buy the Big Issue it being Christmas. Had a £2 coin ready only to beat a hasty retreat on finding it cost £3. Now feel bad.

[HanoiVillan]

Yeah, American English often seems to use fewer prepositions. Some varieties also remove 'to be' as well, as in 'This needs done!' instead of 'This needs to be done!'. 

1 hour ago, blandy said:

It's weird isn't it? We say "she got out of the car", but don't like "she got off of the roof of the car". We'd say "she got in the car", or "get out the car"but probably should say "she got into [in to] the car" or "get out from the car".

It's not very consistent in terms of rules. But get out of sounds wrong and is wrong when written (IMO).

I would say in these cases there aren't really any rules. Whatever most people do round your way, is the right thing to do!

[Jimzk5]

Darts. From the 'ally pally' to the "I'm going to dress up like an oompa loompa to get on tv" hollering morons that go to watch 2 obese men with heart conditions throw a stick at the wall.

 

[maqroll]

6 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

'This needs done!'

I've never heard anyone say this. I've heard "This needs fixing/cleaning, etc.", but not "This needs done." Might be a Southern thing if you've heard that before, dunno.

One difference I find interesting is "Agreed a contract" versus "Agreed to a contract", and "I'm in hospital" versus "I'm in the hospital"

I think I prefer the American "Agreed" and the British "Hospital"

 

[HanoiVillan]

3 minutes ago, maqroll said:

I've never heard anyone say this. I've heard "This needs fixing/cleaning, etc.", but not "This needs done." Might be a Southern thing if you've heard that before, dunno.

One difference I find interesting is "Agreed a contract" versus "Agreed to a contract", and "I'm in hospital" versus "I'm in the hospital"

I think I prefer the American "Agreed" and the British "Hospital"

 

Having quickly googled the 'this needs done' construction, it appears to be a feature of (some) Appalachian dialects:

'Around these parts, there’s an unusual kind of syntactic construction used to express necessity. I first heard about it in a class on historical linguistics, but didn’t hear it “in the wild” (as we linguists say) until I was married and heard my brother-in-law say at a cookout,

"The burgers need flipped".

That is, where I would say “The burgers need to be flipped”, this construction has the passive participle (flipped in this example) right after need. This needs done construction is one of the features of Appalachian English, although it also shows up in varieties of English north of the Appalachians.'

More - oh, so much more - at https://literalminded.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/special-needs/

Which of your 'hospital' examples is British? I'm sure I must have said both at some point, but I can only imagine myself saying 'I'm in hospital' at the moment. 

[maqroll]

29 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Which of your 'hospital' examples is British?

"Im in hospital"