# Language quirk - eliminating "to be" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303 "2012-04-19T18:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Whiteknight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whiteknight/32/4962_2.png) [@Whiteknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiteknight)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/1 "2012-04-19T18:08:27Z")
I have an acquaintance who routinely leaves out “to be” from his spoken sentences when it falls before a verb. For example, “The dishwasher needs emptied,” “The dog wants fed,” etc. What’s the deal? Is this some sort of regional oddity, or is he just weird? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/2 "2012-04-19T18:13:18Z")
It’s a [Pennsylvania](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/11/11/lawn_needs_cut/) [dialect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Pennsylvania_accent#Features). ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/3 "2012-04-19T18:55:44Z")
Letting you break people into two groups with a simple question… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/4 "2012-04-19T19:03:19Z")
Nah, that’s not weird at all. What’s weird is people who feel the need to insert a superfluous “to be” in the middle of a perfectly valid grammatical construction. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/5 "2012-04-19T19:07:25Z")
Perhaps he’s speaking [E-prime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-prime). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/6 "2012-04-19T19:07:53Z")
That construction is common here in Scotland. It was only when I went to the US that I realised that there was anything unusual about it, and that there it was considered a Pennsylvania quirk. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/7 "2012-04-19T19:09:21Z")
“Or not. That is the question.” ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/8 "2012-04-19T19:23:39Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > “Or not. That is the question.” You win 5 internet dollars! ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/9 "2012-04-19T19:33:42Z")
Let’s just say I completely agree with [this poster](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529330). ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/10 "2012-04-19T19:55:52Z")
[A pretty good rundown](http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/needs-washed.aspx). I could’ve sworn it was a more midwest thing, am I thinking of something else? ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/11 "2012-04-20T00:51:11Z")
Do people who speak like that also write like that? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/12 "2012-04-20T00:54:25Z")
I’m a born and raised Pennsylvanian and I hear it both ways and say it both ways. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/13 "2012-04-20T00:59:15Z")
I just looked at **Bosstone’s** links which claim that it’s a western PA thing. I grew up in the Philly suburbs but my dad was from Western PA so maybe that’s where I picked it up. Come to think of it, when I was younger people more than once asked me if I was from the south because they thought I had a southern accent. That always puzzled me. Maybe it was because I was using dialect I picked up from my father. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/14 "2012-04-20T01:07:42Z")
Quirk? I didn’t realize it was abnormal until I read this thread. I’ve spent most of my life in northern WV, PA, and MD. Just seemed like the normal way people spoke to me. > [@Isamu](#): > > Do people who speak like that also write like that? I do. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/15 "2012-04-20T01:12:12Z")
My grandmother’s people were from Pennsylvania and she often used that construction. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/16 "2012-04-20T01:20:05Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > [A pretty good rundown](http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/needs-washed.aspx). I could’ve sworn it was a more midwest thing, am I thinking of something else? Well, from an east coast perspective, that’s not so far off, is it? The Pittsburgh area is, I would say, right up against the start of the midwest. ---
**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:** [April 20, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/17 "2012-04-20T01:26:57Z")
> [@Whiteknight](#): > > . . . Is this some sort of regional oddity, or is he just weird? If it’s regional, it’s not confined to Pennsylvania. I was raised in southern California and I was in high school before anyone objected. And it was a friend, not a teacher, who objected. I fell in with the correction because the alternatives didn’t sound weird to me. And she was so invested in it. ---
**Author:** ![santorum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@santorum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/santorum)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/18 "2012-04-20T01:57:37Z")
> [@Whiteknight](#): > > I have an acquaintance who routinely leaves out “to be” from his spoken sentences when it falls before a verb. For example, “The dishwasher needs emptied,” “The dog wants fed,” etc. What’s the deal? Is this some sort of regional oddity, or is he just weird? [Yale Grammatical Diversity Project](http://microsyntax.sites.yale.edu/) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/19 "2012-04-20T03:36:23Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Well, from an east coast perspective, that’s not so far off, is it? The Pittsburgh area is, I would say, right up against the start of the midwest. It’s not officially the midwest, but for me it’s not a semantic issue. I mean I thought that this construction was used in large, nonspecific swaths of the midwest, even if I can’t name which ones specifically. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303/20 "2012-04-20T06:43:13Z")
It’s used by some people around the Iowa-Minnesota border, but I was in my 40s before I heard anybody use it. (I grew up in Minneapolis.) Given the Pennsylvania connection, could it be an Amish thing? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-quirk-eliminating-to-be/619303.md?page=2)