Come With - DailyWritingTips |
Posted: 06 Jan 2014 08:38 PM PST
“I’m going to the movies. Do you want to come with?”
A reader in England has noticed that this elliptical use of “come with” on British television and doesn’t care for it:
There is an example in the OED of a 19th century elliptical use of with without an object:
Where did the modern usage originate?
The reader’s mention of German “Kommen sie mit,” points to the answer. Large numbers of German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch immigrants to the U.S. settled in the midwest, near the Great Lakes. “Kommen sie mit” migrated into the local English dialect.
English is, after all, a Germanic language. Old English mid, meaning “with,” survived into Middle English and was sometimes spelled mit.
Many American speakers dislike the usage as well:
That reaction seems a bit extreme. My Chicago relations say it. I find it odd, but endearing. It is, however, a regionalism that has not acquired the status of standard English.
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