Correct Grammar

Question

Settle a bet -  is this correct grammar - "Did you arrive of a saturday or a sunday?"

HotWombat · Accepted Answer

'Did you arrive on a Saturday or a Sunday?'

Remember, weekdays are written with a capital.

Guest · Answer

Interesting question.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (referenced at dictionary.com) has this to say :

Some speakers of vernacular English varieties, particularly in isolated or mountainous regions of the southern United States, use phrases such as of a night or of an evening in place of Standard English at night or in the evening, as in We'd go hunting of an evening. This of construction is used only when referring to a repeated actionwhere Standard English uses nights, evenings, and the like, as in We'd go hunting nights. It is not used for single actions, as in She returned at night. ·Interestingly, these of and -s constructions are related. This -s construction, which dates back to the Old English period (c. 449-1100), does not signify a plurality but is similar to the so-called genitive suffix -s, which often indicates possession, as in the king's throne. Just as this example can also be phrased as the throne of the king, nights can be reformulated as of a night. This reformulation has been possible since the Middle English period (c. 1100-1500). Sometimes the original -s ending remains in the of construction, as in We'd walk to the store of evenings, but usually it is omitted. Using of with adverbial time phrases has not always been confined to vernacular speech, as is evidenced by its occurrence in sources from the Wycliffite Bible (1382) to Theodore Dreiser's 1911 novel Jennie Gerhardt: “There was a place out in one corner of the veranda where he liked to sit of a spring or summer evening.” ·Using such of constructions reflects a long-standing tendency for English speakers to eliminate the case endings that were once attached to nouns to indicate their role as subject, object, or possessor. Nowadays, word order and the use of prepositional phrases usually determine a noun or noun phrase's role. Despite the trend to replace genitive -s with of phrases, marking adverbial phrases of time with of is fading out of American vernacular usage, probably because one can form these phrases without -s, as in at night. See note at Smith Island.

Given this explanation, I think the answer is 'no', because it is only used to refer to a repeated action : "did you arrive of a saturday or a sunday" would be correct (in the sense above) only if you and the speaker were discussing your regular arrival at some place, which happened in the past.

Suzi · Answer

you might hear "of a" used in some regional dialect, but I couldn't say which one.

Anonymous · Answer

I moved to Southern Indiana (US) in 2001 and this phrase is common. "I will be at home of an evening" etc.
Until just last night when I read a novel (from an English author) which used the same phrase I thought this was just "Southern" talk. It used to bug me a lot, now I know better, but it still bugs me

-David

Anonymous · Answer

Such nights

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