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Post by Pru Freda on Feb 28, 2014 12:57:07 GMT -5
Just an observation, not a criticism, about how those in the US use the word "of".
You leave it out where it belongs - "I bought a couple pounds of apples", I saw your mother a couple days ago". In the rest of the English speaking word the word "of" would follow "couple".
And put it in where it doesn't belong - "That depends on how good of a book you write".
Isn't it amazing how English has diverged in 300 years? And how it continues to evolve?
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Post by Suzy on Feb 28, 2014 13:03:23 GMT -5
of off or is it off of, is often used in the US too.
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Post by vrabinec on Feb 28, 2014 13:04:25 GMT -5
Give me a couple days to think about this.
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 28, 2014 13:24:44 GMT -5
Just an observation, not a criticism, about how those in the US use the word "of". You leave it out where it belongs - "I bought a couple pounds of apples", I saw your mother a couple days ago". In the rest of the English speaking word the word "of" would follow "couple". And put it in where it doesn't belong - "That depends on how good of a book you write". Isn't it amazing how English has diverged in 300 years? And how it continues to evolve? We'd probably also say "a couple of pounds" and "a couple of days" in a formal written context, but yeah, informally we drop it. "How ______ of a" might be regionalism. I see it occasionally, but it sounds wrong to me. |
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Post by shawninmon on Feb 28, 2014 14:38:20 GMT -5
My irritant is when people use "of" in place of the contraction for "have." As in: I should of done that differently.
*shudder*
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Post by Daniel on Feb 28, 2014 15:16:56 GMT -5
In the example you gave, I would tend to put "of" after "couple." But that's just me.
I recently learned a difference between US English and UK English that I'd never seen before; using "to" instead of "of." For example, when asking someone's opinion of someone else:
"What did you think to him?"
In the US, that would be considered a typo. In fact, the first time I saw it, I thought it was a typo, but I encountered the same usage a couple more times and decided it must have been intentional. The differences in UK idioms still throw me sometimes, but I hardly notice the spelling differences now.
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Post by Suzy on Feb 28, 2014 15:20:24 GMT -5
In the example you gave, I would tend to put "of" after "couple." But that's just me. I recently learned a difference between US English and UK English that I'd never seen before; using "to" instead of "of." For example, when asking someone's opinion of someone else: "What did you think to him?" In the US, that would be considered a typo. In fact, the first time I saw it, I thought it was a typo, but I encountered the same usage a couple more times and decided it must have been intentional. The differences in UK idioms still throw me sometimes, but I hardly notice the spelling differences now. I have never seen that. I would always say 'what do you think of him?' But I have been drilled to say 'different to' and not 'different from'. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 28, 2014 17:42:15 GMT -5
In the example you gave, I would tend to put "of" after "couple." But that's just me. I recently learned a difference between US English and UK English that I'd never seen before; using "to" instead of "of." For example, when asking someone's opinion of someone else: "What did you think to him?" In the US, that would be considered a typo. In fact, the first time I saw it, I thought it was a typo, but I encountered the same usage a couple more times and decided it must have been intentional. The differences in UK idioms still throw me sometimes, but I hardly notice the spelling differences now. I have never seen that. I would always say 'what do you think of him?' But I have been drilled to say 'different to' and not 'different from'. Yeah, that's a firm difference. "Different to" sounds consistently weird to me. You never hear that over here. It's also weird to hear corporate nouns taking plural verbs. |
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Post by Daniel on Feb 28, 2014 19:27:26 GMT -5
It's also weird to hear corporate nouns taking plural verbs. That always sounds odd to me too. I think of a corporation as an "it" not a "they." Amazon is as Amazon does. - versus - Amazon are as Amazon do. The second one makes my head spin. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Feb 28, 2014 20:34:07 GMT -5
It's also weird to hear corporate nouns taking plural verbs. That always sounds odd to me too. I think of a corporation as an "it" not a "they." Amazon is as Amazon does. - versus - Amazon are as Amazon do. The second one makes my head spin. Yeah, it sounds really weird to me. I think you'd also say "the football team are," etc. It sounds wrong to U.S. ears. |
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Post by mlhearing on Mar 7, 2014 21:12:37 GMT -5
Yes, it's chiefly the difference between formal and informal usage.
However . . . we do know the difference between biscuits and cookies.
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Post by Becca Mills on Mar 8, 2014 1:50:22 GMT -5
Yes, it's chiefly the difference between formal and informal usage. However . . . we do know the difference between biscuits and cookies. So we do. You put gravy on biscuits and eat them for breakfast. Cookies are, well, cookies.  |
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Post by vrabinec on Mar 8, 2014 8:20:27 GMT -5
I don't like biscuits. Cookies, on the other hand....
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Post by Suzy on Mar 8, 2014 8:37:26 GMT -5
And 'bangs'. Why is a fringe called 'bangs' in the US?
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Post by Daniel on Mar 8, 2014 9:19:22 GMT -5
Darn. Now I'm hungry. I have this strange urge to make biscuits this morning.
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Post by Alan Petersen on Mar 8, 2014 13:35:28 GMT -5
To the victor go the spoils, after getting from under British rule, we made some changes to things.  I'm a mess. Costa Rican mother, American father. I grew up in Latin American. I learned to speak Spanish first, then English. My proper English and grammar is terrible (that's why I hire an editor and two proofreaders, plus I have three beta readers). My freshman year in college my English professor asked if I learned English in China, I said, nope, Costa Rica. So I have no idea. I just know that British English is more formal, whereas American English is more casual. Similar to Spanish from Spain and the rest of Latin America. Their Spanish is very formal and thus a little weird to us, cool, but odd. I'm sure to them we sound like a bunch of language-butchering nincompoop. I would imagine it's how Brits feel about American English. The evolution/devolution of language is fascinating. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Mar 8, 2014 13:40:36 GMT -5
And 'bangs'. Why is a fringe called 'bangs' in the US? I don't know ... that is sort of weird, now that I think about it. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Mar 8, 2014 13:47:57 GMT -5
To the victor go the spoils, after getting from under British rule, we made some changes to things. I'm a mess. Costa Rican mother, American father. I grew up in Latin American. I learned to speak Spanish first, then English. My proper English and grammar is terrible (that's why I hire an editor and two proofreaders, plus I have three beta readers). My freshman year in college my English professor asked if I learned English in China, I said, nope, Costa Rica. So I have no idea. I just know that British English is more formal, whereas American English is more casual. Similar to Spanish from Spain and the rest of Latin America. Their Spanish is very formal and thus a little weird to us, cool, but odd. I'm sure to them we sound like a bunch of language-butchering nincompoop. I would imagine it's how Brits feel about American English. The evolution/devolution of language is fascinating. Alan, your English grammar is absolutely fine, so far as I can see from your forum posts! Sometimes people who have a touch of anxiety about mechanics produce way more errors in formal, high-stakes writing (in college essays, for instance), but when you look at their informal writing or speech, there are almost no mistakes at all. My students are mostly second-language English speakers, and I see that pattern quite a bit. The coolest thing about English in the Atlantic Archipelago (trying to include all the nations in one term, here) is how incredibly varied it is, especially given how small the total geographical area is. There are speakers in the UK and Ireland that, as an American speaker, I would have significant trouble understanding. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Mar 8, 2014 13:49:18 GMT -5
And 'bangs'. Why is a fringe called 'bangs' in the US? I don't know ... that is sort of weird, now that I think about it. I'm reminded of when I got to thinking about "sweater" instead of "pullover." Why would we want to put on a garment designed to make us sweat? What a yucky name! |
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Post by The Scroggins! on Mar 8, 2014 14:06:38 GMT -5
To the victor go the spoils, after getting from under British rule, we made some changes to things. I'm a mess. Costa Rican mother, American father. I grew up in Latin American. I learned to speak Spanish first, then English. My proper English and grammar is terrible (that's why I hire an editor and two proofreaders, plus I have three beta readers). My freshman year in college my English professor asked if I learned English in China, I said, nope, Costa Rica. So I have no idea. I just know that British English is more formal, whereas American English is more casual. Similar to Spanish from Spain and the rest of Latin America. Their Spanish is very formal and thus a little weird to us, cool, but odd. I'm sure to them we sound like a bunch of language-butchering nincompoop. I would imagine it's how Brits feel about American English. The evolution/devolution of language is fascinating. Your English seems quite good to me. Don't feel bad, though. I have the same problem as you, but with Spanish. I grew up in Appalachia, which is bad enough when one wants to avoid slang and later becomes an English major in college. I married into a Cuban family a few years back. I'm sure my wife thinks I learned Spanish from a 4 year old. I've taken a LOT of Spanish classes in college, which helps, but I'm sorry to say I still butcher the language. I do love Spanish, though. I'm doing my best to learn the ins and outs. Someday, maybe I'll get good enough so that my mother-in-law stops saying, "Aaaadam. You must practice! Work hard at the Spanish! Open the ears!"  |
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