How
are you today? :)
I
have to admit that I am a little bit frustrated. Why? Because I have
been planning to write this post for quite some time now and I've
been thinking: wow, the idea behind the post is so cool, so
magnificent that it's going to blow everybody's mind.
The post is going to get big. The blog is going to get huge and next
thing you know is me receiving an award for outstanding
blogging.
(Yeah,
I know what you're all thinking: Not happening!!!)
But
now I can't even write a proper intro.
So
let's just say that I'm going to write something mildly
interesting and you're going to be troopers about it and read
the whole post ;).
Getting
back to the subject...
The
inspiration for the post was a beautiful love song performed by
Lauryn Hill – Can't take
my eyes off of you. You can listen to it below. (WARNING:
people going through a love crisis might want to skip it.)
The
first 20 seconds give me a shiver every single time. That's
how amazing this song is!
Let's
focus on the linguistic aspect of the song though – the off
of bit to be precise, which is not common and not even correct
to use, but still you can hear native speakers use it in everyday
speech. What I have learnt from short online research and my
own experience is that
- phrases containing off of belong to colloquial and highly informal speech and are often considered incorrect by English language purists;
- the of part is almost unnoticeable, but saying off of definitely takes longer that just saying off
- in most contexts, off of means: from but you can't always replace it with from.
A
few examples:
MAKE
MONEY OFF OF
'Garage
Sale Gal' makes
money off of
junk
'
Why
can't she just be REAL
and
say she
makes money off of
that?
Obviously,
she
makes money off of
her
TV work. She does not have a large amount of money by
any means,
but she is not poor either.
BASED
OFF OF
Dr.
House is
based off of
Sherlock
Holmes.
The
Chevrolet emblem
is
based off of
a
wallpaper design from Paris.
The
sequel, The Pacific, is
based off of
several
veterans' memoirs.
TAKE
IT OFF OF ME!
 |
| Sick Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood |
 |
| Cezar |
OFF
OF THE INTERNET
However,
when I print anything off
of the internet
(through
Mozilla Firefox) the print is miniaturized.
My
router keeps kicking me off
of the internet.
I've
ordered
off of the internet
many
times, this seemed to be the easiest.
OTHERS:
We
sit down to eat off of the plastic plates
that do not all match and drink tea from glasses."
I
got it off of a friend of mine.
Get
off of me, you freak.
I can't get my mind off of my ex?
Ok,
I guess that's it for now.
Bye
;)
GLOSSARY:
magnificent
– wspaniały
to
blow somebody's mind – powalić
na kolana (If something blows your mind, you find it very
exciting and unusual)
outstanding
– wybitny
an
intro – wstęp (introduction)
mildly
– umiarkowanie
to
be a trooper (about something) – być dzielnym, wytrwałym, a
trooper – żołnierz
performed
by – w wykonaniu
to
skip something – pominąć
a
shiver – dreszcz
linguistic
– językowy
research
– badanie
highly
– bardzo, znacznie
to
be considered incorrect – uważana za niepoprawną
purists
– puryści
unnoticeable
– niezauważalny
junk
– śmieci
be
real – być szczerym
obviously
– wyraźnie, oczywiście
not
by any means/ by no means – wcale (not at all)
an
emblem – symbol, znak
memoirs
– wspomnienia
Get
off of me! – Zejdź ze mnie!
get
your mind off of somebody/ something – zapomnieć o kimś,
starać się nie myśleć o kimś
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