In the course of routine typed correspondence, I found myself typing the phrase ‘right out the jar.’ In my heart of hearts, I know that the correct phrase is ‘out of the x,’ but in casual speech I find myself omitting the word ‘the’ in such phrases. I sometimes omit ‘to’ from the phrase ‘into the x,’ replacing it with ‘in the x,’ as in, ‘it’s too hot outside, I’m going in the restaurant.’
Is this trick of speech associated with a particular region or accent, or is this something that started in a movie or TV show, or what? Am I making myself look uneducated, low-class, or otherwise nekulturny by using this turn of phrase?
I have family from West Virginia with very strong southern accents who do the first thing (“I’m goin’ out the house”). I don’t know if it’s common in any other accents or regionalisms, though.
I don’t know if “going in” is weird, though. It sounds fine to me. I was born in NW Indiana and live in Chicagoland now, and I have a “General American” accent (the same as newscasters and actors and such).
Sounds like a construction my grandmother would use. She has a strong Hoosier accent. Do you also say things like “we go up to Muncie last Thursday” or “acrost’t street”?
I think that’s actually the more common usage. If you google both versions of various phrases, ie, “went into the room” vs “went in room”, or “go into the store” vs. “go in the store”, there are nearly always significantly more results with “in” than with “into”. Not scientific, but sincethe results are the same for nearly all possible different iterations of phrases, it seems pretty conclusive.