• JWBananas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    the car needs washed

    Is there a name/term for this abomination? I’ve only ever heard one person speak in that form (omitting “to be”), and it has haunted me ever since.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      15 hours ago

      I think you’d call this elision. Assume that the phrase is originally “the car needs to be washed” but you cut out “to be”, making it into a shorter form. It’s pretty common in language to shorten things to make it faster to speak. Think of the endless contractions in English or perhaps leaving part of a sentence completely unspoken because the content is easily assumed by the interlocutors.

      • JWBananas@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 hours ago

        Worse, to me, is that there is a perfectly grammatically correct way to be just as brief.

        Wrong:

        The bed sheets need washed.

        Right:

        The bed sheets need washing.