Off and on

On and off, in and out, knife and fork, salt and pepper, I don’t really mind, but any on say they’re going cold and hot?

Off and on, on and off, either / or really but definitely not or / either!

Beautiful sweet peas, Witzend, and I love your descriptive collective noun!

I predict a riot??

I’ve gone off this thread ?

Egg and chips.
I thought it sounded wrong in Shirley Valentine when she said, ‘Chips and egg.’
I dare say it’s a regional thing though.

grumppa

Why does it never rain dogs and cats?

Alphabeticality Rules OK! ?

Off and on of course. When you go into a room the lights are off and you turn them on.
On a naughtier note, I’m turned off but my husband could always turn me on !?

MrsKen33

Our weather girl always says “There is sun on offer today.” Does that mean I can decline it if I so desire?

It should certainly mean just that, but I doubt that was what she intended to convey!

Why does it never rain dogs and cats?

I have tried saying both and both sound right to me leaving me wondering which I do say.

Pretty sweetpeas, I love their fragrance do you Witzend ?

I am fairly sure we day “on and off” in this part of the country.

My daft dad used to say k-nives and k-forks.

I say intermittent

I say off & On

MrsKen33

Our weather girl always says “There is sun on offer today.” Does that mean I can decline it if I so desire?

Buy one, get one free!

Beechnut

On and off, knife and fork, few and far between for me.

Me too

On and off for me and knife and fork.
What about salt and pepper although I think I often say pepper and salt!

I'll continue to let it rain on and off. I agree with you, NfkDumpling, how can rain stop before it has started? Sometimes it even rains "cats and dogs".

Set phrases are interesting. I would certainly say "knives and forks".

Others: bits and pieces/bangers and mash/fish and chips.

'On and off', and 'off and on' both sound right to me. Definitely 'knife and fork', and I would say 'twenty-five to three'. Five and twenty sounds archaic - as though someone has miscounted the number of blackbirds in a pie .

On and off of course. How can rain stop before its started?

And the knife has to come before the fork. Because you use the knife to cut your food before you use your fork to eat it.

Witzend

It’s ‘off’ at the moment here anyway, so before it changes its mind I’m going to pick a riot of sweet peas to take to a neighbour later.

Here they are. ?

I’m probably overthinking it, but to me, ‘on and off’ might indicate more on than off, and vice versa.

It’s still ‘off’ here, anyway.

It’s ‘off’ at the moment here anyway, so before it changes its mind I’m going to pick a riot of sweet peas to take to a neighbour later.

my parent always said fork and knife, saying you have to put the fork in first before you use the knife.
perfectly logical. also its alphabetical order.
also, for times, five-and-twenty to three etc.
i find myself doing that now.

I use both. For example, rain is off and on, lights are on and off.

Our weather girl always says “There is sun on offer today.” Does that mean I can decline it if I so desire?