Grammar

[NITA EDWARDS]

PLEASE HELP! I don`t know if this is the correct site but could someone tell me if it`s "I`m bored OF it " or "I`m bored WITH it" ? I think it`s the second option, Thanks

[jno]

You're right, it should be 'bored with it'. People are saying 'bored of it' more and more these days - probably because it sounds like 'tired of it' (which is correct English). Sooner or later 'bored of it' will probably become standard English just because most people say it; but I don't think we're there yet.

[Xollob]

It's obviously not the most reliable method, but if in doubt, google. In this case, "bored of" gets 499,000 hits, whereas "bored with" gets 726,000.

It can be horrifying how many hits you get with things that are clearly incorrect. 1,900,000 hits for "alot of", for example - one of my pet hates. I realise languages evolve permanently, but this is one bit of evolution I can do without (or should that be "without which I can do"?)

[jno]

Hey, look at that poll down the left hand side of the page today: 'Are you already bored of the election campaign?'

See what I meant in my earlier answer? But I still say you're right and AB is wrong!

[Sequin]

You can also be bored by it!

[bernardo]

What I want to know is why 87.5% of people have incorrectly said that they are bored of the eelction campaign, and only 7.5% have correctly said that they are not.

[woofgang]

I was going to say that IMHo bored by or with is correct but obviously there is an ED or a techie who will disagree!!

Is this the ablative case and could you also say "bored from"???

[Solarjunkie]

Definitely "bored with".

I think it comes from lack of differentiation between "v" "th" and "f" sounds, so a phrase such as "I would have thought..." becomes "I'd've thought.." and then lengthened again into "I'd of thought..".

In that example, does anyone ever ask "of you thought about.....?" No? So why say it that way round!!

[jno]

I think there's a slight difference between 'bored with' and 'bored by'.

'I'm bored by politics' means I never take any interest in it.

'I'm bored with politics' is more likely to suggest 'There's been a lot of it about recently and I have now had enough' - possibly a more temporary feeling?

[Bert]

Xollob, there's something wrong with your expression "languages evolve permanently". I suggest "languages evolve continually". Whichever it is, it is really annoying. I wrote to the BBC to ask them to get their staff to pronounce "dissect" correctly, but they replied that "balcony" used to rhyme with "baloney", and once enough people pronounce "dissect" to rhyme with "bisect", then that will be the correct pronunciation. My Chambers does not yet allow it, but I have seen an Oxford dictionary that admits the alternative pronunciation.

[Xollob]

Bert, "continually" is probably the better choice.
I can fully understand your getting upset at what you see as degradations in the language (my pet hates include "alot", "key" as a predicative adjective and "less+countable noun"). However, if languages didn't evolve, the world would be a much less interesting place.
I also think a dictionary's primary task is to be descriptive rather than proscriptive, but that's another thread!

[Clare A]

But what do you all think about words changing their meaning behind our backs? I mean by their initial wrong use by journalists (usually), and then that use becoming the accepted one? My case in point is the word 'louche'. This used to mean 'deliberately mysterious', but it has come to mean something akin to 'sleazy, loose', perhaps by its homophonic similarity to 'loose'.

[NITA EDWARDS]

Many thanks everyone, I can carry on getting annoyed every time I hear it!!