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Subject: 'out of' vs. 'off of'
Question: Why do you get ''out'' of a chair, but ''off'' of a sofa, bench, etc.? Is is
just a colloquialism, or is there a root cause? Conversely, you sit ''in''
a chair, but ''on'' a bech, sofa, stool, etc.

Reply: A lot of prepositional use is somewhat arbitrary. I suspect that originally chairs were
considered more of an enclosure (consider a large chair with arms) than a bench or
stool which was just a platform.

Over time, the architecture of the two have become more similar in many cases.

For the record though, I can sit "on" a chair as well as "in" it.

Reply From: Elizabeth J Pyatt      click here to access email
Date: 03-Oct-2012
Other Replies:
  1. Re: 'out of' vs. 'off of'    Geoffrey Richard Sampson     (15-Oct-2012)
  2. Re: 'out of' vs. 'off of'    Susan D Fischer     (03-Oct-2012)
  3. Re: 'out of' vs. 'off of'    Anthea Fraser Gupta     (04-Oct-2012)

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