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. 🤷‍♂️

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.

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

Ah, got it, thanks.

Like an American redneck or Australian bogan?

Let’s do a little history refresher for the folks unaware, Canada prohibited military & paramilitary firearms after the 1989 École Polytechnique mass shooting with Bill C-17 in 1991, this bill prohibited ownership of actual assault rifles, in 1995 Canada enacted the Firearms Act with Bill C-68 which also grandfathered previously legal firearms to those already in possession of them so they can remain compliant with the law, majority of these firearms remained prohibited so people already in possession can still keep them but they were to remain locked and away from ammunition.

Bill C-68 had a clause for firearms owners to register their firearms, the government of Canada funny enough charged people who wanted to register their firearms, this lasted between 2001-2011 until it was eventually abolished wasting millions of tax payer dollars -

• In 2001, the registration portion of Bill C-68 was implemented. The government asked for all firearms, including long guns (rifles and shotguns), to be registered.

• In 2003, the registration of long guns became mandatory. Failure to register a firearm resulted in criminal charges.

• In 2006, although legislation was still in place, the government no longer asked long gunowners for a registration fee and an amnesty (until May 16, 2011) temporarily protected licensed owners of non-restricted firearms (or those whose licences had expired since January 1, 2004) from prosecution for the possession of unregistered long guns.[19]

• On October 25, 2011, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews introduced a bill to amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, to abolish the long gun registry and destroy all records.

Let’s fast forward to our current situation, in April of 2020 an unlicensed individual in possession of unregistered firearms murdered 22 individuals in Nova Scotia in what is called Canada’s worst mass shooting to date, this sparked Justin Trudeau’s “Gun Buyback” program endorsed by PolySeSouvient otherwise known as Bill C-21 in May 2020 via an Order In Council (OiC), a legislation entirely dedicated to going after licensed firearms owners semi-automatic “assault rifles” and not the people who illegally possess firearms. Now I can keep going into the nitty-gritty of things but this comment is already getting quite long, to sum it up Licensed firearms owners commit next to no violent crime, Stats Canada, the Toronto Police Association, the Ontario Provincial Police, our Public Safety Minister Gary Anadasangaree, the Province of Alberta, the Province of Saskatchewan and the Province of Nova Scotia all have attested to that and this program is yet another waste of tax payer dollars just like the 2001-2011 long gun registry.

I think I know my country quite well I say, don’t forget Canada was a major player in the fur trade and that hunting is a core aspect of our countries history that majority of Canadians have lost touch with.

Edit: Shameless community drop - /c/[email protected] is a community that I moderate, my goal is to educate folks on how firearm ownership works in Canada. Feel free to ask me any questions!

But surely the public don’t need assault rifles for the military to have assault rifles.

Last time I checked no military is using hot pink GSG-16’s chambered in .22Lr with magazines pinned to 10 rounds to assault a country.