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How do you speak English?

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  • http://nyti.ms/KcVn1z
    Durham Richmond and Providence. Reflects my mixed New England/Southern heritage.
  • Surprisingly, I got Nevada, even though I've lived most of my life on the east coast (RI and southern Mass) and the rest in either the Bay Area or Seattle. I think I actively suppressed my RI accent when I moved out west. When I go drinking at PAX East, I lapse back into it and start dropping my ah's
  • Surprisingly, I got Nevada, even though I've lived most of my life on the east coast (RI and southern Mass) and the rest in either the Bay Area or Seattle. I think I actively suppressed my RI accent when I moved out west. When I go drinking at PAX East, I lapse back into it and start dropping my ah's

    I'm just the opposite. I play it up a bit when I'm out of NE. Though, you never really realize how often you say "Wicked" naturally until you try to say it more often.
  • http://i.imgur.com/R9sj86S.png

    Yeah, New York is a really distinct dialect.

    It blew my mind a few years ago when I first learned that most people say "waiting in line". I have always, and will always say "waiting on line". You're all wrong.
  • I actually lose for-real respect points for people who say:

    1. Waiting "on" line
    2. Aks instead of ask
  • http://nyti.ms/1pOfhA1
    Boston/Worcester/Providence. Yeah, makes total sense.
  • edited April 2014
    Rym said:

    I actually lose for-real respect points for people who say:

    1. Waiting "on" line

    People say that!?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • I thought it was only a bad song lyric. Like the song To Be With You.

    I just looked up the words:

    I'm the one who wants to be with you
    Deep inside I hope you feel it too
    Waited on a line of greens and blues
    Just to be the next to be with you


  • edited April 2014
    Luke, that sounds like "wait on" in the sense of "wait for", which is not so bad.

    However, you can't interpret "waiting on line" as "waiting for line" because that's also nonsense; you might possibly interpret it as "waiting on a line" in the sense of "waiting for a line", which has a somewhat different meaning, or you might also interpret it as serving an entire line.

    Honestly, if someone said "waiting on line" without much context I would almost certainly interpret it as "waiting online", i.e. waiting for someone on the Internet. Anything else is simply too much of a logical leap. I would only understand that they actually meant "waiting in line" if they gave plenty of additional context.


    On another note, how do people feel about "off of"? I think it's a little silly, but ultimately it doesn't bother me, and in fact I probably do use it once in a while. That said, is there a legitimate use case for "off of" where either "off" or "from" doesn't work better?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • edited April 2014
    Off of is standard usage, at least around New England. "I live off of Smith Street". "Get off of that couch". It might be one of those things like "gotten" that nobody outside of here uses, though.
    Post edited by Neito on
  • "Off of" is perfectly normal in the south too.
  • Neito said:

    Off of is standard usage, at least around New England. "I live off of Smith Street". "Get off of that couch". It might be one of those things like "gotten" that nobody outside of here uses, though.

    When I was much younger, I dated a girl who didn't believe that Gotten was actually a real word, and would get annoyed when people said it.
  • edited April 2014
    Ruffas said:

    "Off of" is perfectly normal in the south too.

    I think its usage is fairly widespread - definitely in the U.S., but with some penetration outside it as well.

    In my case, "off of" definitely feels weird to me, and yet when I put my mind to it there are situations where my brain tells me it's OK and maybe even preferable to "off".

    The question is, what are the grounds on which that subconscious distinction is made?
    Post edited by lackofcheese on
  • image

    Okay, I grew up pretty close to Reno and had a friend in high school who was from Idaho, but what the heck am I doing in Kansas?
  • I've only ever lived in Massachusetts so this makes tons of sense to me.
    nyti.ms/QIzUlf
  • edited April 2014
    "Off of" is perfectly valid. If you can't handle that, you might need to go try a simpler language.
    Post edited by SWATrous on
  • I've only ever lived in Massachusetts so this makes tons of sense to me.
    nyti.ms/QIzUlf

    It seems like the number 1 indicator of eastern Massachusetts living is the word Rotary.
  • SWATrous said:

    "Off of" is perfectly valid. If you can't handle that, you might need to go try a simpler language.

    I didn't say that it wasn't valid, or that I couldn't handle it.

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