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Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Rain is pouring [out] the window

When will the weatherman say something reliable? Maybe, not in this millennium. Partly cloudy with occasional rain? Then what'd you call that pouring rain out the window?
[From my English grammar book in Korean]
I don't think "out" can take an object without help of other prepositions?in, of.
So I was wondering why it is "out the window," not "outside the window."
Thank you in advance for your help.
  

Top answer

"out the window" is casual English. I would say it is not very good English. Normally, though, it means "out of the window".

— GPY

  • "out the window" is casual English.
  • I would say it is not very good English.
  • Normally, though, it means "out of the window".
  • Using it to mean "outside the window" seems even worse to me.
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12 Answers
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"out the window" is casual English. I would say it is not very good English. Normally, though, it means "out of the window". Using it to mean "outside the window" seems even worse to me.
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Thank you, GPY, for yet yet another so very helpful answer from you. Emotion: smile

Normally, though, it means "out of the window"
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park sang joonSo I was wondering if you think "out" means "out of" here.
It is not good English, and the author's intention is not completely clear. It is a poor example that is not worth worrying about too much.
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park sang joonSo I was wondering why it is "out the window," not "outside the window."
In AmE at least it is just a preposition of location.

—Beyond or outside of: Out this door is the garage. (Am Heritage Dict.)

—used to indicate that a person or animal is looking at something that is outside of a building, room, etc. (Merriam-
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Mister MicawberIn AmE at least it is just a preposition of location.
It seems that there is an AmE/BrE difference in respect of this usage of "out". Uses that in BrE are loose, or casual, or may be viewed as bad English, may be more accepted in AmE.
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GPYAmE/BrE difference in respect of this usage of "out"
A Google Ngrams analysis of "look out the window" shows these high points (in the current decade):

0.0000350% American English
0.0000090% British English

If the two corpora are appropriately chosen, this suggests that "look out the window" is used only about 25% as much in BrE as in
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GPYAmE/BrE difference
Why do the same people who reject "(swept it) off of the table" insist on "(threw it) out of the window", and the same people who reject "(threw it) out the window" insist on "(swept it) off the table"?

Are these AmE/BrE differences or just individual differences, I wonder.

CJ
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CalifJim"(swept it) off of the table"
Use of "off of" instead of just "off" seems to be more common in AmE.
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AnonymousUse of "off of" instead of just "off" seems to be more common in AmE.
Not in mine. At least when speaking, I seldom bother with the extra preposition: Get your feet off the couch!
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AnonymousUse of "off of" instead of just "off" seems to be more common in AmE.
I speak AmE, and I'd say "swept it off the table" and "threw it out the window".

See for non-American examples of "off of".

CJ
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