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Disorder

Of / Off

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When should I use 'of' or 'off'? Since English isn't my native language this question has been in my mind for several days now. Everytime I have to type one of these words I get confused. Please help, or else I'll destroy the planet or something..

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I think I'll use this thread for future questions related to languageproblems. This might come in handy.

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Off can be referring to mechanisms...For example, "He turned the dryer 'off'." It can also refer to human beings and emotions as well. "When he said I was a hot mother, I was turned 'off' to seeing him on any further dates."

Off can also be referring to placement as well. "They took the cat's corpse 'off' the lawn." These are just a few examples.

Of is a word generally something that relates to a form of ownership or belonging. "We're going to watch the movie, Anne 'of' Green Gables." Or perhaps someone would say, "What in the blue hell is he thinking 'of' now?"

I'm not a full-fledged English major, so this might be incomplete and crappy. But if you need me to elaborate, I'll do what I can. :)

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Quite right. Well done, Disorder. :) By the way, where are you from?

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Vulg@r said:

Quite right. Well done, Disorder. :) By the way, where are you from?

The Netherlands, or Holland, whatever you guys feel like calling it :)

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I belive very strongly in the good sense of the Netherlands/Holland. From what I understand, active euthanasia is acceptable there (read: legal) and they don't freak out as much about drugs. Also, I heard there is a designated brothel district. Am I right? If so, I think that you guys have got it right. Folks in the US have their head up their moral asses so far they can lick their own uvula. "Oh, let's try to impress crazy Puritinian morals that hardly anyone can keep, and no one does, and then scorn those who we catch while excusing ourselves of the same thing because it's still a secret...Oh yeah, and we love run-on sentences!"

Asses.

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Vulg@r said:

Also, I heard there is a designated brother district.

I think you mean brothel district, right? If that's what you mean, the answer is yes. We have lots of things legalized in controllable areas. You pretty much summed up Holland about right.

Oh yeah, and we love run-on sentences!"

This leads me to a new question. What does 'run-on' mean?

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"Off" has something to do with movement of an object afaik.

"Of" has, as someone already said, something to do with possession.

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As an English major, let me help you.

Off = something finsishing, going away, powering down etc.

Examples;

  • Lüt turned his Windows PC on and switched his Linux PC OFF
  • BBG told Orion to fuck OFF
  • fraggle wrote OFF the essay in under two hours.
Of = belonging to, consequence, etc.
  • Dan was sick and tired OF being called a gay
  • pritch rebanned W@velength on account OF his being a smelly turd
  • DOOM Anomaly is OF questionable parentage...
See? Easy!

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Oh, shoot. I mistyped. Yeah, I meant "brothel". Pritch, my fellow English major, expanded quite well on your question. Run-on in relation to sentences means continuing a sentence for longer than is allowed by most, if not all, English grammar rules. For example:

"I used to love grated cheese that fell to the floor."

That's a normal sentence.

"I used to love grated cheese that fell to the floor but now I don't because I think that I could contract a disease and my mom told me not to so I guess I really shouldn't but that's okay, I think I'll give it a go again because I'm really hooked on the stuff."

That's a run-on sentence.

Any questions? :)

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Of

According to the dictionary, of has 22 different uses. I've re-written their descriptions a little bit and included slightly simplified examples.

1. Derived from or coming from / originating at or originating from (e.g. many customs of the USA are considered strange by outsiders)

2. Caused by / resulting from (e.g. I heard that you almost died of embarassment last night)

3. Away from / at a distance from (e.g. the store you're looking for is about a mile east of here)

4. So as to be separated or relieved from (e.g. you were robbed of your dignity)

5. From a total or a group (e.g. two of my friends were round my house yesterday)

6. Composed or made from (e.g. I'm holding a bar of gold)

7. Associated with or adhering to (e.g. other people of his age are often extremely moronic)

8. Belonging or connected to (e.g. he's holding onto the rungs of a ladder)

9. Possessing / having (e.g. I hear that you're a person of honor)

10. On someone's part (e.g. that was very nice of you)

11. Containing or carrying (e.g. I'm carrying a bag of groceries)

12. Specified as / named or called (e.g. the submarine can go to a depth of ten thousand feet / Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden)

13. Centering on / directed toward (e.g. I hear that your friend has a great love of horses)

14. Produced by / issuing from (e.g. Wine is a product of the vine)

15. Characterized or identified by (e.g. 2002 was a year of little consequence)

16. With reference to / about (e.g. the boss thinks highly of her proposals / we'll speak of it later)

17. In respect to (e.g. he's rather slow of speech)

18. Set aside for / taken up by (e.g. to Christians, Sunday is a day of rest)

19. Before / until (e.g. two minutes out of five)

20. During or on a specified time (e.g. I have fond memories of recent month)

21. By (e.g. she was beloved of the family)

22. Used to indicate an appositive (e.g. that idiot of a driver almost ran me over)

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Off

Off has 27 meanings, and to make things even more confusing, it can be used as either an adverb, an adjective, or a preposition.

adverb

1. From a place or position (e.g. he drove off the cliff)

2a. At a certain distance in space or time (e.g. damn it, that shot was a mile off)

2b. From a given course or route / aside (e.g. he swerved off the road into a ditch / sorry, I must have dozed off during the lecture)

2c. So as to be no longer on, attached, or connected (e.g. he's finally shaved off his mustache)

3a. So as to be divided (e.g. marked off the playing field by yards)

3b. So as to be no longer continuing, operating, or functioning (e.g. I switched off the radio)

4. So as to be completely removed, finished, or eliminated (e.g. the traps should kill off all the mice)

5. So as to be smaller, fewer, or less (e.g. our sales dropped off after Christmas)

6. So as to be away from work or duty (e.g. eighty percent of our staff took a day off during the England/Germany game)

adjective.

1a. Distant or removed / farther (e.g. the off side of the barn)

1b. Remote / slim (e.g. I just stopped by on the off chance that you were home)

2. Not on, attached, or connected (e.g. the place stinks when your shoes are off)

3. Not operating or operational (e.g. the oven is turned off)

4. No longer taking place; canceled (e.g. you bastard, the wedding is off!)

5. Slack (e.g. Our predicted profits were way off this year)

6a. Not up to standard / below a normal or satisfactory level (e.g. your aim is off today)

6b. Not accurate / incorrect (these statistics are way off)

6c. Somewhat crazy / eccentric (e.g. I think that person is a little off)

7. Started on the way / going (e.g. I'm off to see the neighbours)

8a. Absent or away from work or duty (e.g. She's off work every Tuesday.

8b. Spent away from work or duty (e.g. My off day is Saturday)

9. Being on the right side of an animal or vehicle / being the animal or vehicle on the right.

10. Nautical. Farthest from the shore / seaward.

11. Sports. Toward or designating the side of the field facing the batsman in cricket.

12. Off-color.

preposition

1. So as to be removed or distant from (e.g. the bird hopped off the branch)

2. Away or relieved from (e.g. he's off duty again)

3a. By consuming (e.g. I'm currently living off pizza and beer)

3b. With the means provided by (e.g. Four of my five living relatives are living off their pensions)

3c. Informal. From “What else do you want off me?” (Jimmy Breslin)

4. Extending or branching out from (e.g an artery off the heart)

5. Not up to the usual standard of (e.g. Beckham's off his game lately)

6. So as to abstain from (e.g. last month he finally got off drugs)

7. Nautical. To seaward of (e.g. a mile off Sandy Hook)

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pritch said:

As an English major, let me help you.

Off = something finsishing, going away, powering down etc.

:P

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pritch said:

Dan was sick and tired OF being called a gay

I was? :P

Pritch said:

fraggle wrote OFF the essay in under two hours.

Thats a funny use of the word off. I've never heard it used in that manner. It would normaly be 'Fraggle wrote the essay...'. I have heard the phrase 'write off' before though, but that has to do with like legal stuff, such as 'I got the bank to write off my mortgage'. And it would mean to get rid of the mortgage.

But I dunno, I'm not an English major.

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Nightmare: I'd hate to write all of that (many, many times) if I pissed an english teacher off! :P

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the_Danarchist said:

I was? :P

Dan, you're a gay. =P

It's allright through, I still love you.

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pritch said:

As an English major, let me help you.

Off = something finsishing, going away, powering down etc.

fraggle wrote OFF the essay in under two hours.

wrote off the essay seems wrong, when you "write something off" you usually eliminate it, consign it to the scrap bin etc.
"fraggle wrote the essay in under two hours." surely?

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pritch said:

As an English major, let me help you.

pr1tch: I AM AN ENGLISH STUDENT!!!!!!!!!!!%$%*^$$*^$*^%

pr1tch: SO AS I NEVER KNOW WHOS CALLING LIEK LUT DOES YEAH GREAT!

pr1tch: gawd, just remembered, haven't cjecked vets for a while

pr1tch: heh, the you ARE teh scorrge

pr1tch: anwya happy xmas you bastard

pr1tch: yeah, and thay have like the orginal ship as well, and all kinds of stuff like Picards chair.

pr1tch: oh, yo uman hes on IRC?

pr1tch: heh you're causing peopel everywhere to be destaffed

pr1tch: ay idea anyone psts or new site he responds with 'looks good!' all the time

pr1tch: I SELL THEM£&!"^£&"^£&^"&£

pr1tch: mo

pr1tch: worhless

pr1tch: worth;ess

pr1tch: don't be so optimnistioc

pr1tch: I wentr backwards in time?

pr1tch: don't fo that

pr1tch: I'm... someone who worls for this rerstaurant, uh hu uh haw uh hoo

pr1tch: rofl, i'm there liek evry day

pr1tch: they couldn't figure out when teh othe rone was joling

pr1tch: I DON'T STOP NOTING, YOU IDIOT

pr1tch: well, permaish

pr1tch: you relaise I'm on there

pr1tch: well idid thta as well

pr1tch: when itried to perform and admin fucntion I was aloowed to do

pr1tch: what y9iu thihnk myt tu-[knmg suc msjk heh?

pr1tch: Ulspladft?

pr1tch: yeah my typing ducks

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the_Danarchist said:

wrote off sucks blahh

More commonly used in connection with totally destroyed cars, i.e.

'I've wrote off the car!' Pritch mused as he watched Dan burn alive within it's shattered chassis.

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Aussies say whichever one of those they feel like. Usually depends on how drunk one is at the time as to which one gets said... :P

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Insomniac said: Grammer is Silly

*cough*...grammAr...*cough*...I'm anal!...*cough*

Damn that flu and cold season anyway.

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