I don't think non-native speakers are to blame at all for what's happening to proper English in the US.
Quite the opposite. It's a combination of poor-quality schools, the Internet, TV and movies to blame.
And the worst offender of all are the schools where some of the teachers themselves don't use proper grammar.
As long as the comma is omitted after the "so" in that particular usage.
Contraction of "ach so", roughly "Oh -I see!". Not to be confused with "also" which means "thus", as in "Also sprach Zarathustra", "Thus spoke Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss; you hear part of it in "2001 a Space Odyssey".
Perhaps that would be so if English rules and usages were based entirely on logic and consistency. They are not.
"Off of" has clearly existed as colloquial usage for a long time. For example, it appears several times in dialogue in Our Mutual Friend, from the mid-19th century. It should be easy to find examples of more formal usage. Here are several non-speech examples from Raymond Chandler, who had impeccable credentials as a writer:
"There was nothing nervous about his movements with the gun. I wondered just what junk he was off of."
"She unlocked her rolltop desk and took her hat off of her impossible hair and hung her jacket on a bare hook in the bare wall."
"The floor of the hall was carpeted with blue vinol with a geometric design in gold. There was a den off of this."
Then I suppose your autocorrect will also put a comma after "Therefore" if you write that instead of "So"?
Your statement could be written "We set the bias at 12mA; therefore, the anode voltage will drop."
This form is used when the second thing happened as a result of the first thing.
Note the use of the semicolon and the comma - it's a minefield out there!
This wikiHow about covers it: https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Therefore-in-a-Sentence
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The sophistication of the language will always match the intellectual requirements of current life conditions.
I probably sound like a dick for saying this. But the quality of education in the US has dropped and is still dropping.
I probably sound like a dick for saying this. But the quality of education in the US has dropped and is still dropping.
I left school at 15, and was in the dunce set for English then, so I'm pretty sure that I'll be wrong on this:
I put the hat onto the table.
The hat is on the table.
I took the hat off of the table.
The hat is now off the table.
I say "I took the hat off the table" myself, it's what I'm used to.
I put the hat onto the table.
The hat is on the table.
I took the hat off of the table.
The hat is now off the table.
I say "I took the hat off the table" myself, it's what I'm used to.
Chandler was American (absolutely nothing wrong with that!), but I think that "off of" is indeed of American origin. That is certainly where my daughter picked up that combination of words, by watching sitcoms like Friends.
At a certain point, questions of grammar become questions of style. Not a matter of right or wrong, but what looks and sounds the most elegant and/or logical. Comma use is often at issue in style, perhaps most notably in the "Oxford comma." Which do you prefer?:
The speakers were dynamic, linear, and efficient.
The speakers were dynamic, linear and efficient.
Writers who like as little clutter in their language prefer the latter. Others point out that the former (the "Oxford comma") is more logical. Neither is necessarily grammatically more correct.
The speakers were dynamic, linear, and efficient.
The speakers were dynamic, linear and efficient.
Writers who like as little clutter in their language prefer the latter. Others point out that the former (the "Oxford comma") is more logical. Neither is necessarily grammatically more correct.
Those sentences all mean something slightly different, so which one is "correct" depends on intention, context, or interpretation.
"I put the hat on the table" puts the emphasis on the action of the subject "I" and its role in the current location of the hat.
"The hat is on the table" puts the emphasis on the object and its current location, neatly avoiding the question of who put it there.
Americans of a certain age might remember a famous instance of such a passive construction: "Mistakes were made."
I am a great fan of the Oxford comma. I live about five miles from Oxford, so it is inevitable that I should like it 🙂
define: crunchy
(hint, it's not peanut butter, and if you aren't around teens you won't understand)
(hint, it's not peanut butter, and if you aren't around teens you won't understand)