# Do you use "anymore" to mean "these days"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678 "2015-07-20T09:25:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/61 "2015-07-21T09:22:58Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > So how do those of you who die a little inside every time you hear a “positive anymore” feel about: > > “I love that restaurant but we stopped going when the traffic got so bad. How about you - do you go there anymore?” 😕I’m not sure what you’re asking - that’s standard usage, even for those of us who don’t use the positive form; the answer would be either: “I don’t go there anymore” or “I still go there” but not “Anymore, I go there” or “I go there anymore” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/62 "2015-07-21T09:26:48Z")
That is to say, the question is neither ‘positive’ nor ‘negative’ but if we change it thus: “You don’t go there anymore, do you?” works for me “You do go there anymore, don’t you?” does not ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/63 "2015-07-21T12:16:04Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > You asked for an explanation and this is the best I can give - you don’t need to be wrong for me to be right; these are just different conventions of our two different cultural backgrounds. Yeah, and I understand that. I’m not exactly demanding that everyone start using the positive anymore–although it would be nice if all people modeled themselves to my standards. 🙂 But I do have to object when people start slinging around words like “crap” and “horrible” and “uneducated” about my dialect. And as I say, I’m not really trying to be stubborn about this. I just genuinely, honest to God don’t get how people can keep saying the construction “doesn’t make sense,” when to me it’s patently obvious that it does. But I imagine that my recalcitrance on this issue is just as bewildering to you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/64 "2015-07-21T12:29:06Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > It’s not the position in the sentence that matters, it’s whether you use it positively or negatively. Everyone pretty much agrees that it’s normal to say that something “_isn’t_… anymore,” but the question is whether it’s proper to say something “_is_… anymore.” I worded that poorly. I use the negative “anymore”, never the positiive. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/65 "2015-07-21T12:36:17Z")
Having system issues and missed the edit window. The above should read: I worded that poorly, but I wasn’t addressing the positive vs negative. Postion in the sentence does matter. I would say “We don’t do that anymore” but would not say “Anymore, we don’t do that”. The latter isn’t wrong, it just grates on my ears. I also use only the negative “anymore”, never the positive. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/66 "2015-07-21T12:50:55Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Yeah, and I understand that. I’m not exactly demanding that everyone start using the positive anymore–although it would be nice if all people modeled themselves to my standards. 🙂 But I do have to object when people start slinging around words like “crap” and “horrible” and “uneducated” about my dialect. It’s a perception issue. Same sort of thing that happens when people ascribe value to accents and other social/cultural attributes. They’re being a little too honest in expressing notions essentially based on provincialism. > [@](#): > > And as I say, I’m not really trying to be stubborn about this. I just genuinely, honest to God don’t get how people can keep saying the construction “doesn’t make sense,” when to me it’s patently obvious that it does. But I imagine that my recalcitrance on this issue is just as bewildering to you. 🙂 I’m sure it feels similar from both sides, really. In truth, people probably impose a layer of rationalisation and ‘sense’ over the top of conventions they have actually already accepted as normal; any ‘logical’ explanation either of us offers one another is pretty superficial really. We speak the way we speak not because we figured out some universal logical truth, but only because it’s what we learned. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/67 "2015-07-21T15:27:59Z")
I’m a life-long Southern Californian, and I’d never heard the “positive” construction until I met my Ohio-born wife. And as she said, yes, it drives me crazy. It was a long time before I could even figure out why it sounded wrong. I just knew it was wrong when I heard it. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/68 "2015-07-21T18:32:05Z")
I have used it that way a few times, purely for fun. I know it’s “wrong”, just like I know double negatives are wrong but I occasionally use them anyway for effect. I was not raised in a locale in which the term was ever used in that way; it’s only in my adult life that I’ve used it. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/69 "2015-07-21T18:44:20Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I voted “Yes”, but only use the word “anymore” after the condition, never at the beginning. I agree. I’ve only heard it at the beginning in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/70 "2015-07-21T18:56:35Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Idiom by nature has no logical explanation. Language is not math. Do you ever arrive at a party heveled and combobulated? No, but I once wittingly arrived at a party gruntled. (Does prevent mean farting before you eat the beans?) > [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I don’t, and I also find it jarring. I don’t think I ever saw that use until I came to these boards. I also never heard needs blanked until here (the grass needs mowed, the dishes need washed)–another one that makes me shudder. I had no idea that was considered to be ungrammatic until a friend in high school had a similar reaction. She said either add ‘to be’ or shift to mowing and washing. > [@CairoCarol](#): > > So how do those of you who die a little inside every time you hear a “positive anymore” feel about: > > “I love that restaurant but we stopped going when the traffic got so bad. How about you - do you go there anymore?” According to wiki, it’s also standard usage if used in interrogative and hypothetical contexts. So just the fact that it’s a question meets the standard. I’m guessing that the hypothetical is why “It seems like everyone is X, anymore” sounds OK. Or not. It sounds like some posters do not allow the hypothetical context. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/71 "2015-07-22T00:06:14Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > According to wiki, it’s also standard usage if used in interrogative and hypothetical contexts. So just the fact that it’s a question meets the standard. I’m guessing that the hypothetical is why “It seems like everyone is X, anymore” sounds OK. Or not. It sounds like some posters do not allow the hypothetical context. In my dialect, the interrogative use of “any more” is grammatical (as it is in the parallel cases of “any longer,” “any less,” and “any better” mentioned above), but it doesn’t work with the hypothetical as you’ve constructed it. Once again, out of curiosity, does a statement such as “Any longer, I go there” work for the “anymore, I go there” folks? This is a sincere question (I have no idea whether it sounds right or not to the speakers whose dialect allows the positive “anymore” construction.) My guess is that is probably does sound okay, but I don’t know. If so, are there similar positive instances of “any better” and “any less” that are common in dialect? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/72 "2015-07-22T00:08:03Z")
I use “anymore” in the positive sense, but I wouldn’t tend to use it in the beginning of a sentence either positively or negatively. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/73 "2015-07-22T00:11:07Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > For instance: > > “Any more, it seems like everyone’s glued to their phones 24-7” > > If you can recognise that this construction is WRONG, WRONG, DRIPPING WITH WRONGNESS AND WRONGICITY, then you may have a cookie, and vote “no” in the poll. This sort of reaction is precisely why I started using the phrase. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/74 "2015-07-22T00:24:40Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > This sort of reaction is precisely why I started using the phrase. 😃 I do the same with the “needs washed” type of construction. I just can’t beat the “anymore” instinct out of me, but, for whatever reasons, “the car needs washed” is a wonderful construction to my ears, even though I did not grow up with it. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/75 "2015-07-22T01:09:20Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Yeah, and I understand that. I’m not exactly demanding that everyone start using the positive anymore–although it would be nice if all people modeled themselves to my standards. 🙂 But I do have to object when people start slinging around words like “crap” and “horrible” and “uneducated” about my dialect. Should I take umbrage with being told that “so don’t I” makes no sense? I’m not under the illusion that it makes grammatical sense, so I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/76 "2015-07-22T02:34:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Once again, out of curiosity, does a statement such as “Any longer, I go there” work for the “anymore, I go there” folks? This is a sincere question (I have no idea whether it sounds right or not to the speakers whose dialect allows the positive “anymore” construction.) My guess is that is probably does sound okay, but I don’t know. If so, are there similar positive instances of “any better” and “any less” that are common in dialect? As a matter of fact, no, at least for me. I suspect it’s because, as I indicated, I don’t parse the word “anymore” as being semantically equivalent to “any more” (meaning some additional amount), but as a separate adverb with its own meaning (now, but not then). As an aside, while I don’t object to the use of positive anymore at the beginning of a sentence, I don’t typically use it that way myself. I will almost invariably put it at the end. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/77 "2015-07-22T02:59:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I do the same with the “needs washed” type of construction. I just can’t beat the “anymore” instinct out of me, but, for whatever reasons, “the car needs washed” is a wonderful construction to my ears, even though I did not grow up with it. One of us! One of us! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/78 "2015-07-22T05:19:46Z")
I actually think the versions with “anymore” at the beginning sound better. Sure, they sound a bit uneducated, but they aren’t as jarring as actually putting “anymore” at the end of a positive statement. I find that “needs washed” sounds better than “needs washing,” although “needs to be washed” sounds better. I feel like there should be a word between “needs” and “washing.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/79 "2015-07-22T16:35:26Z")
Some of my older Irish-American relatives used “Anymore” as a synonym for “nowadays,” but I never have. ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678/80 "2015-07-23T01:28:32Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > And as I say, I’m not really trying to be stubborn about this. I just genuinely, honest to God don’t get how people can keep saying the construction “doesn’t make sense,” when to me it’s patently obvious that it does. But I imagine that my recalcitrance on this issue is just as bewildering to you. 🙂 I admit it is bewildering to me 🙂 The usage doesn’t particularly bother me, but it does baffle me that it makes actual sense to you. If someone asked you, “Do you have any more of that?” would you say, “Yes, I have any more”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-anymore-to-mean-these-days/725678.md?page=5)