Is there ever a correct way to use 'off of'?

[iwouldgoouttonight]

DP's family use it all the time and it winds me up. Like 'the hailstones bounced off of my car'. Is that right? It sounds wrong to me.

No. Off of is not "correct". It does probably count as a use of dialect, depending where you are I think.

It makes me cringe - don't think it's ever right (could be wrong though)

So should you say 'they bounced from my car' or 'they bounced off my car'?

Or neither of the above?

I'd say "The hailstones bounced off my car".

I think whenever you use it, it should be 'from'

you get half off of the undiscounted price. Does that even work

that made sense in my head.

Sorry Nagoo but you get half off the undiscouted price, you don't need the of.

'Off of' makes my teeth itch too but I live in an area where it is so common I have to let it go :( or I'd spend half my life correcting people and I have much more important things to correct them about

You can do it if you make it a noun followed by a possessive noun.

There is a Lil Kim song called The Jump Off, with a later version by Mobb Deep (according to Wikipedia). In an article about the two you might correctly say something like, "Critics preferred the Jump Off of Lil Kim to The Jump Off of Mobb Deep."

I have never heard this !

Never heard what?

I too hate the expression off of. It's is unnecessary (ie can use from or off instead) and sounds clunky.

What annoys me the most is that my mil uses it and she is always going on about education (she's an ex-teacher) and blah blah blah.

Talk proper English!!!

PS she is middle class with a typical southern accent and likes the opera so she can'r be excused on the grounds of regional dialect

Cobonthecorn, I think that's why it annoys me so much when my PILs use it, they're both well educated with nice southern accents and have been known to correct me when I say things 'wrong' in my midlands accent.

I now feel slightly smug that I can correct them back with their 'off ofs'.

I'm from the Midlands too and although pils don't look down on me as such, I think they pity me slightly.

I'm not brave enough to correct her (mil) though!

never ever ever.

it's "off"
or "from"
(depending on context)

I sometimes say things like "ooh, look, it's that Cat Deeley off of the telly. " However I am being facetious, because it is most definitely wrong. Love the "Jump Off" example though!

I think Northey deserves a special prize for finding a sentence where it could work.

More irritating is "I should of" instead of "I should have"!

Northey Sat 30-Jun-12 08:34:04
You can do it if you make it a noun followed by a possessive noun.

There is a Lil Kim song called The Jump Off, with a later version by Mobb Deep (according to Wikipedia). In an article about the two you might correctly say something like, "Critics preferred the Jump Off of Lil Kim to The Jump Off of Mobb Deep."

I think even this is pushing it. Surely it should be
"Lil Kim's Jump Off rather than Mobb Deep's".

We don't use of in this way in English. It sounds like a translation of the French "la maison de Camille est plus grande que la maison de Franck" etc.

I'm well educated, middle class, middle south and a teacher... and only recently realised this was wrong!

Americans use it a lot. Is that where it's come from?