It's from, not off

[TheCatfordCat]

Currently I'm having the admittedly ridiculous rage when people say, "I got this off the Internet" or "I got a new [insert item here] off my Dad".

No you didn't dear. You got it from your dad.

"Language is constantly evolving and changing"
I got this off the internet dear.

It's just dialect 🙄

Or the even worse version, off of…

If it is 'on' the Internet, when one removes said meme, is one not taking it 'off' the Internet, as one does when one takes an item, which was once 'on' a table, 'off?

I think it's accepted northern (especially Liverpool) dialect. It annoys me too, but it would be boring if we were all the same.

As a Midlandser with an English degree, I'm guilty of sometimes saying "I gave it her" instead of "I gave it to her". Habits are hard to break.

Is this incorrect? I think it’s certainly more informal that using ‘from’, but it has never occurred to me that it might be wrong. It’s not new either, so I think it’s probably too late now to hope people will desist!

I’m in Manchester btw, so perhaps it is a northern thing. Again, this is a revelation!

It doesn't particular bother me, when used in informal speech/writing.

I mean, it's not in the same 'immediate outrage at wrongness' category as 'I could of gone to my work Christmas party', or, worse still 'I could of went to my work Christmas party'.

But then, admittedly, I find myself reading the Relationships forum and, rather than being horrified at the indifference or mendacity of a partner's text messages screenshot by an OP, I'm horrified by said partner's spelling and grammar, regardless of the content of the messages.

Mine pet hate is “ I’m so excited for Christmas”. No you’re excited about Christmas

"Language is constantly evolving and changing" is an excuse for laziness in writing and speech.

Thanks for all the responses. I suppose I'm raging from the South East which obviously means I speak differently innit. I will bow out now, corrected.

I'm a staunch descriptivist, but I admit I don't like this one - I don't mind it in the context of 'got it off the internet', but I dislike it in the context of gifts ('I got this off my mum for my birthday', for example) because, to me, it sounds as if the recipient all but wrestled it away from the giver. But if people say it regionally, then they do; it's nothing to do with 'laziness', and and my opinion's just that, an opinion, without particular validity.

Not as bad as ‘I’ve gotten it off the internet’

Overheard in Ely.
“Why is her waving at we when us don’t know she. “
All the right words though not in the “correct” order.
😁😁

A pop- up appeared on my phone from Manchester Evening News . The headline, which was presumably written by a journalist, said 'Coronation Street legend's exit revealed as actor forced off of cobbles'. 🤔

You got there before me!

I used to get all het up about 'off of' but I found out that it has a respectable history going back to Samuel Pepys (this one of quite a number):

Monday 26 May 1662

Up by four o’clock in the morning, and fell to the preparing of some accounts for my Lord of Sandwich. By and by, by appointment comes Mr. Moore, and, by what appears to us at present, we found that my Lord is above 7,000l. in debt, and that he hath money coming into him that will clear all, and so we think him clear, but very little money in his purse. So to my Lord’s, and after he was ready, we spent an hour with him, giving him an account thereof; and he having some 6,000l. in his hands, remaining of the King’s, he is resolved to make use of that, and get off of it as well as he can, which I like well of, for else I fear he will scarce get beforehand again a great while.

Or, if you prefer...

Henry VI, Part 2 - Act 2, scene 1

WIFE
Most true, forsooth, and many time and oft
Myself have heard a voice to call him so.
CARDINAL What, art thou lame?
SIMPCOX Ay, God Almighty help me!
SUFFOLK How cam’st thou so?
SIMPCOX A fall off of a tree.
WIFE A plum tree, master.

Captain Charles Johnson's General History (1724):

"Two days afterwards they chased a sloop of 60 tons, and took her two leagues off of Cape Henry;" –

I still dislike it, sounds so clumsy!

I"m fine with "off the internet", but I don't like it in the context of gift giving, either - not because it sounds like it's wrestled off them (to my ear, though I can see why it might sound like that to some), but because it sounds like they got a bargain/deal somehow. To me, it just sounds like the recipient is very entitled, expecting a gift or something, very transactional, whereas "from" sounds like it was given more generously.

@NoNoNanette @butterpuffed The example of "off of" given in the post above work ok as they are in different contexts to the "off/ off of the internet"; the latter is about acquiring something from somewhere, whereas falling off a tree, getting off something or being a certain distance away from something. That's just an archaic way of saying those things, where as "off the internet" instead of from, and "off of" mean something totally different.

I blame Scott Mills for ‘off of’ he used it ALL the time. UGH.

@Firapple - this made me smile. I, to my shame, am the same. I read posts where clearly the poster is in a difficult situation and needs help, but honestly, I sometimes give up halfway through because the grammar and spelling is so bad that it derails the post entirely.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! When I see 'he should of' I start to think 'I don't blame him for being unfaithful'.

Ooooh, that's a bit 'arsh, Miss. 😉