Off of

I really did think I was the only want who still loves to hear the English language spoken properly! Agree totally with all of the above!

If I hear 'No worries' again I shall vomit

I agree with so many of these messages.What can be done about poor grammar when we are bombarded with it on T.V. and in our newspapers?

Ex-teacher says she can't bear it when she asks her sons how they are and they answer 'I'm good'. Her response is I'm not asking about your behaviour, I'm asking after your health. They answer the same when asked if they would like a drink. Talking of drinks, I am sure it has been mentioned before, but my toes curl when I hear 'can I get?' in any coffee shop.

Spelling angers me too, I will not read posts with sloppy spelling or with words spelt phonetically and as for advertisements where people can't be bothered to find the correct spelling of the object they have for sale........they certainly lose me as a potential customer

Retired teacher of English and self-styled pedant extraordinaire!
As for 'looking out the window' and similar constructions, these are not just American usage. I grew up in Scotland using them and no teacher ever corrected us.
We all have our linguistic bugbears and this is a fine place to let them off (not 'off of') the leash!

To Angharad56,

Well, quite. Different to is excruciating but the American even say 'different than' which is also cringeworthy. No one would say 'differs to' or 'differs than', would they? They would hear it not making sense.

And 'bored of', 'could of', 'would of', 'should of' are also no-nos.

I know that language is dynamic and is always evolving and that often a mixture of the highly formal and the demotic can be extremely effective or amusing but to play at ducks and drakes with syntax and/or grammar is often to lose nuance and meaning and diminishes our discourse.

What about 'going forward' to refer to the future! Also 'year on year'. Sorry, have just contradicted my previous post.

This thread is really up my street'. I am a terrible pedant - although I am sure that my English is not always perfect ? but I, too, dislike intensely the terrible use of bored of; another phrase I heard on BBC radio 4 a couple of weeks ago was from the 'get go' instead of start!! Where on earth does that come from - terrible........ Also, has anyone else noticed that a lot of people I have seen interviewed on TV, when asked a question, reply starting all their sentences with So....... Is it just me???

Also agree with everything said so far. Do you remember that song years ago, 'hey, you, get off of my cloud,' ?
Another little bugbear which I feel has now become standard is 'like' used in place of ' as if' . I felt like I was going to cry...
However, we also have to recognise that languages, like people, are constantly evolving and can't be pinned down into a state of permanence.
Much as I hate many of these, mainly American, uses and neologisms I don't feel I have the power or the right to change anything.

English is fast going down the pan! What annoys me most is 'bored of' - can't get much worse. And another 'didn't use to' - how about 'used not to'? But I am such a snob!

I agree with all the comments.
I also hate 'your weather tonight'! It's not my weather it's just 'the' weather!

Agree with all the comments. Particularly dislike the getting presents off of.
Don't mind "for free". It's wrong but I would use it, except it rarely applies in my life.

i heard 'for free' used in an advert ......aargh!

Carol, the weather person on BBC Breakfast, always says 'the evening period'. Surely it's just the evening. She does not say 'the morning period' etc. I find myself waiting for her to say it.

I could start a whole thread on misused prepositions, but I won't because I'm shortly off on holiday

I think that 'off of' has been around for years and years. Not pretty, I admit...

What's really bugging me at the moment is the use of 'outside of'. The only time you need to say 'outside of' is if you're changing 'outside' to a noun and talking of the outside of something (as opposed to the inside). Otherwise 'outside' is a preposition, it doesn't need another one with it! What's very worrying is the frequency with which it ocurrs in teachers' blogs; English teachers, at that

I have seen "of" instead of "have" in books, the proof readers/editors should be sacked!

I could not agree more.

Agree with almost all posts so far, and so glad it isn't just me!

'I should of'-'your instead of you're'-'different to'..don't get me started!
Is it just me, but I always thought that it was 'bored with', not 'bored of', as is so often used nowadays?

And there's the awful ' I should of '! Drives me mad.

I wrote to the BBC weather service about 10 years ago to ask them not to say 'The wind is coming off of the continent' I got a nice letter back saying the presenters had been told not to make that error again.

I'm sure if I wrote to the BBC now I would get a stroppy reply .

Apart from the fact that "off of" is wrong, (tautological?) I dislike the use of off to replace "from" in general. I remember a thread a while ago about "Presents off DGC" , weird. Is it regional?

At least Tommy Cooper got it right.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGdI7CXZUXc

I notice in American books that they say, for instance "looking out the window" instead of looking out OF the window" quite annoying.