ellenkushner (
ellenkushner) wrote2008-04-10 11:34 am
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Grammar Patrol: Forbidden Fruit
What is with this forbade from? Isn't it forbade to?
I hear/see it all the time now - on NPR, in a recent (excellent) story in the NYTimes, even on Neil Gaiman's blog! It's (mis?)used most often in the past tense: "They forbade them from landing on the beach." Isn't it "They they forbade them to land..."? Move it to the imperative and it becomes clearer: surely it's "I forbid you to open that door!" - not "I forbid you from opening that door!"
Is this a language elision, a regionalism, or what?
I hear/see it all the time now - on NPR, in a recent (excellent) story in the NYTimes, even on Neil Gaiman's blog! It's (mis?)used most often in the past tense: "They forbade them from landing on the beach." Isn't it "They they forbade them to land..."? Move it to the imperative and it becomes clearer: surely it's "I forbid you to open that door!" - not "I forbid you from opening that door!"
Is this a language elision, a regionalism, or what?
no subject