It's "set foot", people, not "step foot"!

[BrightOrangeDahlias]

Yet another thread where this phrase has come up. It makes me want to scream into a pillow. Where has "step foot" come from?!? And can it bugger off back again?

For me it's 'myself/yourself/ves' used incorrectly. It's crept in, from occasional misuse by those trying to sound formal, to several emails each week containing a non-reflexive 'self'. More than one of the guilty parties have an English degree and are senior to myself me so I can't even correct them.

This one isn't from writing what you hear, although I agree that's to blame in many of these examples, it's from corporate wanker-speak going mainstream.

Give me his e-mail address. I'll send him a quiet word.

My current grump is the song by Elton John and some woman, where they declare (often) in the chorus,
"What are the angels going to do with you and I?"

Me. It's me.

I like to write in complete sentences, although I don't do always. I've encountered a new expression today. It's 'corporate wanker-speak'. It pleases my ears much more than 'I'm glad for Christmas'.

Give me his/her e-mail address. I'll send some examples of when it's correct to use the reflexive.
I know, you can't. Shame.

I went to see the film about Bob Dylan. I am from that era and I was thinking about 'I AIN'T GONNA work on Maggie's farm NO more'. That takes me to the Stones not getting NO satisfaction. They've a lot to answer for, those young men.

My contribution was is I was sat or I was stood etc. I see these everywhere. Makes me want to shout no you weren't! You were sitting or standing!

I honestly thought that stepped foot was now the acceptable, interchangable alternative?
I knew it sounded weird but it seems so common now I've almost began to accept it!

Noooooo! It really sounds weird and just wrong. You can set foot or step in or out of somewhere. You don’t step foot anywhere!

I've seen, "I was led on the bed", for I was laid on the bed, which should be, I was lying on the bed.

I saw this on MN earlier: "My DH is a tradesmen..." 🙄

You don’t step your feet tho do you? You plant them or put them or place them. Or you just step. Intransitive, no object.

Aargh I hate 'step foot'.

Can I add that the proof is NOT in the pudding. That makes absolutely no sense.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Step foot is a new phrasal verb, like give up, bring up, call off, get over. Makes no sense if taken in its component parts but understood in English as a semantic unit when taken together. There’s no way to teach these to EFL students, they just have to memorise them. It makes perfect sense in that context and certainly isn’t a sign of the downfall of English or anything else (although the pedants here do join a long and distinguished line of worriers that English is about to combust).

I can’t bear it…

Don't you mean 'I can't bare it'? 😁😁😁

(I think some of the woman/women errors may be autocorrect. It is annoying, though.)

Excellent points.

This has been driving me round the bend for months, as have many of the twatty errors already mentioned on this thread.

If it's separate items you can count, you have fewer.
If it's something in the mass, you have less.

Fewer loaves, less bread.
Fewer apples, less fruit.
Fewer steaks, less meat.

😱😱😱

See also

Proceed
Precede

I co agree that it evolves, but it's irritating when it doesn't make sense!

Women instead of woman. I shall never understand it. It's not a typo. It's not an autocorrect. It's deliberate.

And it makes no sense!

I saw a women the other day...
There was this women on the bus....

Aaarrrgh!!

I borrowed him money.

I lent money from him.

Just NO to both. Step Foot? Fuck my life…

Thank you for this thread!! I hate "step foot".

The other one that really pisses me off is "if you think that, you've got another thing coming". It makes no sense, I don't understand why that one has got confused! I've seen it in all sorts of places including in BBC programmes, novels etc and am amazed the editors of those don't know the difference!