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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Off, on or from which is sustandard which is better

How do you say this? Which is correct?

They make a lot of money off of seal skins.

They make a lot of money off seal skins.

They make a lot of money from seal skins.

They make a lot of money selling seal skins.

That's a game you can make money off (of)/on.

I make a lot of money off him. I sell him what I buy for 10 dollars for 50 dollars.
  

Top answer

All OK.

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8 Answers
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Hi,

They make a lot of money off of seal skins. The underlined combination is not acceptable in formal

writing.

Regards
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Mister MicawberNor is 'a lot of'.
Hi,

Right, but it wasn't my point. I realize you understood what I meant, didn't you? [Y]

Regards
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Then why make a point of 'off of' there, since the OP's sentences are not formal?
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Mister MicawberThen why make a point of 'off of' there, since the OP's sentences are not formal?
Hi,

The OP's sentences are fine. Regardless of formality, I believe it would be better to avoid using

the aforementioned combination since its correctness is questionable. I suppose you agree on this.

Regards
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No, 'off of' is not questionable at all; it is merely that it occurs more often in the spoken language. The M-W Dict of English Usage comments quite charmingly "Off of is an innocuous idiom—a compound preposition made of the adverb off and the preposition of—that has been in use since the 16th century... In American English off of is used in contexts ranging fr
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Hi,

I'm still not fully persuaded of this explanation. Let's take the following as an example:

They make a lot of money off of seal skins. Here, of is superfluous since we can omit it without changing

the intended meaning. Thus, I can't think of a good justification for writing the of.
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