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English: The usage of "to be built off" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 9 of 14 18 June 2010 at 6:00am | IP Logged | ||
I would call that grammatically incorrect. "Existed" should be "existing" or "pre-existing". The word "of" is optional, and I would tend to leave it out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6474 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 10 of 14 20 June 2010 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I would say both "built off" and "built off of" are incorrect (or at least overly colloquial) and it should be "built on". The metaphor here is you are building something on top of another thing.
I see the same problem with "based off of"; it should be "based on" for the same reason. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| RedBeard Senior Member United States atariage.com Joined 6104 days ago 126 posts - 182 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek* Studies: French, German | Message 11 of 14 20 June 2010 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that "Built On" or "Based On" are your best bets for the first two. "To Be Built Off Of" reflects (to me, at least) actual building. Exampl: The addition to the house was built off of the existing hallway.
As for the third one, it would sound absolutely normal in common speech. Especially when the secong "that" is emphasized. I'm pretty sure that THAT idea was already mentioned. I think for written English it would be better without the second "that". That is a tricky one, though. Good question. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Awaken Newbie United States Joined 5271 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 14 24 June 2010 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
1 - If there is a new idea, it should have been built on an existing one. (although in everyday conversation, you will hear "built off" used instead of "built on") 2 - Students should read existing ideas and build on them. (In this case already is not needed based on the definition of "existing") 3 - I'm pretty sure that idea has already been mentioned. (as the others have mentioned, the first "that" is optional and usually left out). Great questions. Edited by Awaken on 24 June 2010 at 4:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| karaipyhare Tetraglot Groupie Paraguay Joined 5587 days ago 74 posts - 150 votes Speaks: Portuguese, Spanish*, English, Guarani Studies: German, Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 13 of 14 25 June 2010 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not familiar with "build off" or "build off of" expression so I looked it up on the
internet but haven't found it in any phrasal verb dictionary, but I came upon this http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/built.html 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5958 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 14 of 14 25 June 2010 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Putting aside the issue of "built off" v. "build on", etc, I think there is some mashing of verbal use in this sentence, but it is not entirely clear to me the proper resolution. It just strikes me as slightly incorrect. A mish-mash of present indicative ("if there IS a new idea...") with what seems to be a past subjunctive ("... it SHOULD HAVE BEEN built...."). Not entirely sure what I would suggest as an alternative. Perhaps: If there were to be a new idea, it should be built... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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