Leaving "to be" out of sentences - please explain this to me?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My husband does that and it drives me crazy. So one day I asked a question and answer service run by students at BYU. Here's the answer they gave me after consulting the linguistics department, among other things:

 

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/15335/

 

I noticed the answer here mentions that need functions as a semi auxillilary verb. My thought reading the thread was that it reminded me of German modal verbs.

 

Some of the sample sentences sound quite right to my ear. For example, "The car needs washed" or "The bed needs made" or "The kids need fed" wouldn't make me take notice at all. (I find it interesting that when I switch some of the subjects to plural that I'm less likely to use this construction. Although I can't say why it sounds ok in some instances but less ok in others.)

 

Of course the Texas variant would be something like

The car needs fixin'.

He needs some stabbin'.

 

I grew up in Washington state. But I went to school on the East Coast and have lived in the South and overseas.

[Cinder]

oooh... oooh.. See, here, I would say My car needs fixin! Is that a GA thing? :)

 

Are you sure your car needs fixin'? I think it's just fixin' t' need fixin'. :D

 

Cinder

[Parrothead]

How about this one:

 

Be sure AND get milk when you go to the store.

 

I prefer:

 

Be sure TO get milk when you go to the store.

 

:tongue_smilie:

This one is just telling the person to do two things. The speaker wants the errand boy to be sure (as opposed to being unsure) along with telling the errand boy to pick up milk. It makes perfect sense. :D

[smrtmama]

It's a midwestern colloquialism.

[mamalbh]

All my Iowa in-laws, and my hubby, drop 'to be' all the time and it drives me nuts. I'd never heard anyone talk like that until I met them.

[2_girls_mommy]

The OP's sentences are exactly how I phrase things:blushing:. I see how the others are correct, but it is not how we speak here.

 

This one:

 

I've got a chester draws that needs sold.

 

 

made me laugh. My BIL actually called his chest of drawers a chester drawers. My sis about wet herself laughing so hard when she told me. Poor guy. He won't live that one down with her for a long time.

[LizzyBee]

I noticed the answer here mentions that need functions as a semi auxillilary verb. My thought reading the thread was that it reminded me of German modal verbs.

.....

 

I wonder if leaving out to be is more common in areas with high concentrations of German immigrants. The area I grew up in was primarily populated by Germans. My dad spoke German before English even though his was the 3rd generation born in America, and his church held services in German until the 1950's.

[Annie]

I wonder if leaving out to be is more common in areas with high concentrations of German immigrants. The area I grew up in was primarily populated by Germans. My dad spoke German before English even though his was the 3rd generation born in America, and his church held services in German until the 1950's.

 

I grew up in Milwaukee, which is fairly heavily German, and I had never heard it before.

[jubulibee]

MY dh is from PA and he says it all the time. I'm used to hearing now, so it doesn't sound so awkward to me anymore. But when we first met, I thought it was so weird. And wrong.

[Chelle in MO]

This one is just telling the person to do two things. The speaker wants the errand boy to be sure (as opposed to being unsure) along with telling the errand boy to pick up milk. It makes perfect sense. :D

 

Exactly!

[Kathy S.]

I live and grew up in Northern WV. In school we learned that it was correct either way. When leaving out “to be” in the sentence, it is inferred. I am in my 60’s, so it is not anything new. From what I’ve read recently, it is considered to be correct, but is part of a regional dialect in WV, PA and Ohio.