I’m from the Northeast, and if I wanted to have my room painted, I’d say:
“The room needs to be painted.”
However, in western Pennsylvania, where I recently lived, they’d say
“The room needs painted.”
This drove me nuts. Are they right, and one doesn’t need the “to be?”
That must be a Pennsylvania regionalism. I’ve heard it from people from that area as well.
I would certainly use “to be” in that sentence, or perhaps, “That room needs painting.”
<holds up hand> It’s evidently an Indiana thing too. I’d never heard it growing up in Michigan. I moved to NE Indiana and it’s all over.
Not trying to be offensive here: Since you said it’s in Pennsylvania, I wonder if it’s got anything to do with proximity to Amish / Plain people? Maybe a usage common to their speech that’s entered general speech in the area? Because we’ve got a lot of Amish here as well.
Just a thought.
Ask yourself “what does the room need?”
The room needs to be painted
The room needs painting
Unless the room is doing the painting (past tense), “the room painted” makes no sense.
The room was painted.
Dis here site needs read by younz.
I have also encountered this structure in rural south-central (Appalachian) Ohio and it annoyed me there too (I’m from west-central Ohio).
I wonder whether there are any forms in German dialects that could have served as a model for this usage.
In case yinz (alternative to ‘younz’) is too lazy to follow da link above:
At’s Pittsburghese for yinz!
Now, what keller d’yinz want dis room painted, anyhow?