• m0darn@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    Hey can I ask you a question? Is English your primary language? I’m trying to understand why I so often see people omitting “to be” or using past tense as a future tense.

    To me the sentence should be:

    the white house needs to be burnt again.

    Or

    the white house needs burning again.

    I’ve also seen

    it needs fixed

    Where the same rules should apply.

    Is this the language evolving? A short hand through some phone keyboards/ autocorrect or something, or maybe you’re translating from another language. It’s totally fine, everyone understands what you’re saying. I just am trying to figure out this phenomenon.

    • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Is English your primary language?

      Nah, it’s my third (though I mostly consume media in English).

      Mostly picked up through reading, and torrents, which explains me mixing dialects without rhyme or reason, though I try to favour English over American most of the time.

      To me the sentence should be:

      the white house needs to be burnt again.

      Correct, as far as I know.

      Or

      the white house needs burning again.

      That seems to be correct too, though I’m not sure if it depends on the specific dialect.

      I’ve also seen

      it needs fixed

      Which is what I used (though I used the irregular form burnt instead of burned, which is probably me mixing dialects again), and isn’t technically correct, though it is used in some dialects.

      I just thought it sounded appropriate for this particular situation. 🤷‍♂️

      Is this the language evolving?

      Probably. Languages do be like that. 🤷‍♂️

    • Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      I don’t think anything has changed, perhaps you are noticing it more. It’s not correct grammer, it’s probably an intentional stylistic choice.

    • theOneTrueSpoon@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      They do that here in Scotland. It’s perfectly normal to hear someone say that something “needs done” or whatever. I found it weird at first, but I got used to it