New Intransitive Verbs

I've blogged before about my annoyance at a store clerk asking me, "Can I help?" Well the practice has spread to the US, and now I've encountered an even worse intransitive use of a transitive verb: I asked for ice in a supermarket the other day, and the cashier said, "We're out. Try the gas station up the road -- they might have." Two days later, I heard the same usage: "Oh, he might have."

We've become so busy we can't afford the time to say "it."

Comments

  1. "Might have" is also short for "might have done" and perhaps "might have been."

    ReplyDelete
  2. "They might have done ice"?

    "They might have been ice"?

    ReplyDelete

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