7 ms·

Americans are very stingy with prepositions: American: I wrote them British: I wrote to them

quietbritishjim 7y ago
This is very true, and yet the British government message about coronavirus is "stay home" rather than "stay at home". It sounds rather odd to me. I wonder if they chose it to sound a bit more casual and relatable, or just to match what people were already likely to be hearing elsewhere online.
- n4r9 7y ago
  It is a bit weird. As a Brit I would say that the first "home" has changed from a noun to a sort of adjective. It has the same type of meaning as fr example "busy" or "asleep". We quite often say "Sally is home" and it has a similar logic to "Sally is busy" or "Sally is asleep".
- limograf 7y ago
  I think it's to fit on the podium because actually everyone is saying "Stay at home".
- AlphaSite 7y ago
  Stay home is more commanding, is it makes sense as a general order.
- AshamedCaptain 7y ago
  Just thank god they don't decide to prefix it with a hash to make it more trendy twitter-like youngster hipsters whatever like what the French government is doing (#stayhome / #restezchezvous). Now get off my lawn...
- chimprich 7y ago
  "Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives." has the ring of a Dominic Cummings slogan. It's in the same vein as "Take back control" or "Get Brexit Done". It's campaigning distilled down to the minimum possible words. Edit: Interestingly(?), the government official leaflet adds an "at": https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-information-leaflet https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid...
- bloak 7y ago
  The leaflet that came through my door says "STAY AT HOME". The Downing Street letter signed by Boris says "you must stay at home". I have seen "stay home" a few times, which I notice, because it seems like bad English to me.
underwater 7y ago
"Every little helps".
- dkdbejwi383 7y ago
  Yeah this is a strange one, my brain reads "helps" as a noun here, it takes an extra beat for it to infill a ghost noun between "little" and "helps" ("every little bit helps")
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  Is that a correct sentence in either dialect? It doesn't sound well-formed to me!
  - dkdbejwi383 7y ago
    https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=749 https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=749
- willyt 7y ago
  Isn't that colloquial saying though? Trying to think of another good example... "It never rains, but it pours."
  - LyndsySimon 7y ago
    > "It never rains, but it pours." I've never heard that construct. Are you by chance referring to Morton Salt's motto "When it rains, it pours"? I think it was HN that lead me to the discovered not too long ago that the phrase originated from an early-20th-Century ad campaign of theirs following the introduction of magnesium carbonate, an anti-clumping agent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Salt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Salt
    - willyt 7y ago
      No it is a colloquial saying in Britain, especially in the North of England. Me: "I hurt myself at work, then I lost my wallet and my girlfriend left me", Someone else: "It never rains, but it pours".

This is very true, and yet the British government message about coronavirus is "stay home" rather than "stay at home". It sounds rather odd to me. I wonder if they chose it to sound a bit more casual and relatable, or just to match what people were already likely to be hearing elsewhere online.

n4r9 7y ago
It is a bit weird. As a Brit I would say that the first "home" has changed from a noun to a sort of adjective. It has the same type of meaning as fr example "busy" or "asleep". We quite often say "Sally is home" and it has a similar logic to "Sally is busy" or "Sally is asleep".
limograf 7y ago
I think it's to fit on the podium because actually everyone is saying "Stay at home".
AlphaSite 7y ago
Stay home is more commanding, is it makes sense as a general order.
AshamedCaptain 7y ago
Just thank god they don't decide to prefix it with a hash to make it more trendy twitter-like youngster hipsters whatever like what the French government is doing (#stayhome / #restezchezvous). Now get off my lawn...
chimprich 7y ago
"Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives." has the ring of a Dominic Cummings slogan. It's in the same vein as "Take back control" or "Get Brexit Done". It's campaigning distilled down to the minimum possible words. Edit: Interestingly(?), the government official leaflet adds an "at": https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-information-leaflet https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid...
bloak 7y ago
The leaflet that came through my door says "STAY AT HOME". The Downing Street letter signed by Boris says "you must stay at home". I have seen "stay home" a few times, which I notice, because it seems like bad English to me.

underwater 7y ago

"Every little helps".

dkdbejwi383 7y ago
Yeah this is a strange one, my brain reads "helps" as a noun here, it takes an extra beat for it to infill a ghost noun between "little" and "helps" ("every little bit helps")
mehrdadn 7y ago
Is that a correct sentence in either dialect? It doesn't sound well-formed to me!
- dkdbejwi383 7y ago
  https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=749 https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=749
willyt 7y ago
Isn't that colloquial saying though? Trying to think of another good example... "It never rains, but it pours."
- LyndsySimon 7y ago
  > "It never rains, but it pours." I've never heard that construct. Are you by chance referring to Morton Salt's motto "When it rains, it pours"? I think it was HN that lead me to the discovered not too long ago that the phrase originated from an early-20th-Century ad campaign of theirs following the introduction of magnesium carbonate, an anti-clumping agent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Salt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Salt
  - willyt 7y ago
    No it is a colloquial saying in Britain, especially in the North of England. Me: "I hurt myself at work, then I lost my wallet and my girlfriend left me", Someone else: "It never rains, but it pours".