Americanism

[Skids]

With reference to writing a letter why do Americans say "write me", "write her" and "write Bob" instead of "write to me", write to her" and "write to Bob"?

[bernardo]

Because in America, the verb "write" can be used as a transitive verb in this context, whereas in British English it is an intransitive verb requiring a preposition.  It is similar to "protest" something, rather than "protest against" something.

In other words, there is no particular reason, apart from the general reason that American and British usage of English have a number of differences anyway (for all sorts of historical and cultural reasons) in pronunciation or spelling, as well as some grammatical differences such as this one.

[commoner]

..lol...Skids you should never be surprised at the differences in American and British useage of the english language.....I was in London on one occasion, when I was asked  by some Americans, the way to Liverpool. I had them halfway up the M1 before I realized they meant Liverpool STREET. The street, road, avenue etc. never  seem to be added as we would. They speak of 5th..meaning 5th Avenue and so on.

   We do however say "phone me", "phone her" and "phone Bob" ...strange that..<G>

[sddsddean]

Because they are colonials who don't know any better!!

[Ouisch]

The same reason we say "was taken to the hospital" instead of "was taken to hospital."  Y'all got something against indefinite articles?  ;>

[Peter Pedant]

American usages could be older than English, and it could be that 'write' could take a direct accusative (of person) in 1700s and then it dropped out of English and stayed in American.

Observationally this is consistent with a language mutating fastest at its point of origin.

[ezapf]

<American person's view> I was about to say, �because we are lazy� or �because we are colonials who don�t know any better� but bernardo and Peter Pedant have taught me something. Thanks, guys. </American person's view>

Btw, I have never said, "write me," but I have said, "write to me."

[Bully Wee]

For that matter, why do English folk say "I am sat here" instead of "I am sitting here"?

[brionon]

What about ''I wanne debate him'' Ugh !!!