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What is the difference when you say "get off of something" and "get off something"?

RegDwigнt
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Ilia
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  • Do you mean the difference between "off of" and "off"? In England, "off of" is supposedly ungrammatical ... always use "off". See this question, which is not a duplicate. In the U.S., there is a subtle difference between them (but you can always use "off" and be correct), which I hope somebody can explain. – Peter Shor Jan 26 '13 at 18:46
  • It must have come up before. (Probably in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as England, Peter.) – Barrie England Jan 26 '13 at 18:48
  • @Barrie: My use of "England" was deliberate. Many of the supposedly ungrammatical things Americans do with language that the English complain about came from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or parts of England not close to London. – Peter Shor Jan 26 '13 at 18:51
  • @Peter Shor. Then forgive my presumption. As you must know, England is often used by those less well informed than you when Britain is meant. Anyway, I have provided a pro-AmEng answer. – Barrie England Jan 26 '13 at 18:56
  • @Peter: You don't exactly have a history of being mistaken in such matters, so given no-one else seems to have meaningfully addressed that potential difference, perhaps you could cogitate a bit more and try to explain it. FWIW, I might have been inclined to buy into this answer on the earlier (non-dup) question, but all it has so far is a couple of downvotes (which may or may not be well-informed). – FumbleFingers Jan 26 '13 at 19:31
  • @simchona - Anne McCaffrey published a collection of short stories, entitled "Get of the Unicorn" - which could be a noun phrase meaning "offspring of the unicorn", or an imperative to "receive (something) from the unicorn". However, her publisher misread the title as "Get Off the Unicorn", and she decided to keep that title... http://www.amazon.com/Get-Off-Unicorn-Anne-McCaffrey/dp/0345349350 – MT_Head Jan 26 '13 at 19:59
  • Have you considered get off from something? – deutschZuid Jan 26 '13 at 21:46
  • @James Jiao: get off from something sounds very strange to me. Google Ngrams seems to show that it's an outdated use of the preposition, and is very uncommon now. In written British English, it's used around as often as the phrase "off of the", which is considered ungrammatical. – Peter Shor Jan 26 '13 at 23:18

4 Answers4

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I can’t speak to overseas or Canadian usage, but think there is no hard-and-fast rule in US usage. There is a tendency—and it’s no more than that—to reserve the two-place prepositions off of, down from, out of, and those with to for directional contexts, much like into, while the one-place versions are preferred in locational contexts. I, at least, tend to speak of a motion being taken off of the table; if am subsequently asked about its status, I am more likely to say “Oh, it’s off the table now.” However, other two-place prepositions are more likely to be locational: down in, up on (not the same as upon!), over at.

The two-place prepositions sometimes have an intensive sense. I tell my son “Get off your butt”; when I come back twenty minutes later and he’s still watching TV, I say more sharply “Get offa your butt!” In heated dispute I am more likely to say “Get offa your damn high horse!” than just “Get off your high horse.” But I suspect these are occasioned by prosodic rather than semantic considerations.

StoneyB on hiatus
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  • +1, and good to see you use speak to in that way. We had a question about it not so long ago. – Barrie England Jan 26 '13 at 20:56
  • I think you're at least partly confusing double prepositions (ie preposition + preposition) (It was up on the top shelf) with complex (multi-word) prepositions (it came out of nowhere) (cf It was upon the top shelf). – Edwin Ashworth Jan 26 '13 at 22:52
  • @EdwinAshworth You're drawing a distinction I'm not familiar with. 'Complex prepositions' to me means constructions like by dint of, in front of, according to. – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 26 '13 at 23:10
  • @StoneyB: Complex prepositions are covered well at http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/comprepterm.htm - they're from the mundane-looking (out of; next to = beside etc) to the more 'phrasey' (by dint of; in the process of; wrt). The criterion is a word group that functions like an ordinary one-word preposition. It is however possible to use two independent prepositions together: the mouse ran from under the settee (an elision of the mouse ran from its position under the settee). (Actually, terminology may be inconsistent, but the distinction remains.) – Edwin Ashworth Jan 27 '13 at 00:07
  • @EdwinAshworth OK, that extends the sense a little farther. But I don't think any of the collocations I offer, except possibly down from in some contexts, can be taken as "two independent preopositions". For me the key is cadence, and all of these have a dying fall. – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 27 '13 at 00:15
  • Up and on are either two independent prepositions, or adverb (or locative particle) + preposition. As you say, up on is not the same as the fused upon (which =, in its locative and directional senses, unitary on). Similarly, down in is not unitary, conveying two spatial concepts (unlike out of). – Edwin Ashworth Jan 27 '13 at 00:29
  • @EdwinAshworth I put it down in the cellar may be binary, but I've got a place down in the West End is no more unitary than He ran out of the house. – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 27 '13 at 00:59
  • I assume you mean no less unitary. I'd disagree (though expressions like up town and down town aren't always used with an obviously logical choice of locational - my wife and I tend to use different expressions for the same town!) Up on certainly conveys two concepts, and down in does if you're not going to seek out possible idiomatic usages. The fact remains that you classified out of and up on similarly, when the first is considered a single preposition and the second two prepositions (or adverb + preposition) - just as down on (the beach, say) would be. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 28 '13 at 00:01
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I take it that this question is about the use of the complex preposition off of in general. ‘The Cambridge Guide to English Usage’ says that, in such cases,

. . . one can argue that the of is redundant. Yet in American English off of appears so often in print that it has idiomatic status, and is not edited out, as in British English . . . Webster’s English Usage (1989) expresses reservations about using it in the most formal prose, but there’s no doubt that off of is thoroughly established.

The Oxford English Dictionary says that when off is followed by of, it is

In later use only colloquial (nonstandard) and regional.

'Regional' can be taken as including the United States. The Rolling Stones, of course, sang 'Hey! You! Get off of my cloud'.

Barrie England
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The difference between them, is that "off of" is used by Americans. For English and other British people, saying "off", would be sufficient. Saying "off of", is not really necessary. It is an example of, American English involving words that are superfluous. Surplus to requirements. Unnecessary, added extras.

Tristan
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    But you probably say "he went out of the door" while Americans would say "he went out the door". Why do you add a superfluous "of" with one preposition but not another? – Peter Shor Jan 26 '13 at 20:01
  • I personally, don't use that. I would notice if anyone else did, because it would be very strange over here. – Tristan Jan 27 '13 at 00:30
  • @Peter Shor: I've just found this at Wikipedia: ... in AmE, one jumps "out of a boat" by jumping "out the porthole," and it would be incorrect in standard AmE to "jump out the boat" or climb "out of the porthole." I hate to think what you have to use with portals, lancet, skylights and fire exits. I'll stick to BrE. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 29 '13 at 10:01
  • @Tristan: So you would say: 'He got off the train', 'He looked out the window', 'He jumped out the boat' and 'He went out the door'? That's more consistent than either the prevailing US or UK customary usages. Where is this unusual national variety (ie your 'over here') used, Tristan? – Edwin Ashworth Jan 29 '13 at 10:03
  • @Edwin: it's perfectly correct in AmE to climb "out of the porthole" or go "out of the door". It's just that lots of people leave out the "of" for these (but you need it in "jump out of the boat"). – Peter Shor Jan 29 '13 at 12:05
  • @Peter: Can you suggest a rationale for identifying those cases where out of rather than out is needed in US English? Or is it unpredictable? I'm guessing (wildly) at 'instances where a plane is "obviously crossed" by agents leaving or viewing' (doors, windows ...) allow a bare out. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 29 '13 at 19:50
  • @Edwin: essentially, bare out means out through. So you can go/look out a door, window, porthole. I have to drive my car out of the garage, but I can go out the garage if I'm on foot (meaning I go out of the kitchen, through the garage, and onto the driveway). And smoke can come out a chimney. – Peter Shor Jan 29 '13 at 20:13
  • Thank you. I'll smugly use the US idiom next time I'm visiting your superb National Parks. But I do wish you'd start selling cordials. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 31 '13 at 22:25
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Get off of something = get enough of something.
Get off something = get that something off.

RegDwigнt
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Z3r0n3
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