Okay, new pet peeve

[nickjong]

While a TA for History of Computing, I read paper after student paper including the phrase "we discussed about [noun phrase]." I painstakingly pointed out the misuse every time. Since then, I've seen this construction over and over. I became paranoid that perhaps I was the one committing the grammatical error. However, every dictionary entry I

Comments

[omega697]

I'm pretty sure you are correct. It sounds stupid, also - you should point that out.

[cellio]

It's transitive. You're right; they're wrong. I haven't been seeing a lot of this one, though I'll be the first to admit that I'm usually out of the loop on hip new trends. The language theory sounds possible; does the pattern of (mis)use track with national backgrounds at all?

[nickjong]

I can't admit to noticing the national backgrounds of the offenders. I never noticed this phenomenon until moving here, so perhaps it's a Texan or Mexican thing. I only fear that it's a young person thing.

[cdinwood]

I think that people are doing s/talked/discussed, and since we do talk about . . . Probably people think of discuss as "fancy way of saying talk" and so they use them interchangeably.

[nickjong]

You're probably right. Maybe it's only a matter of time before this becomes standard. Ah well.

[foolmonkey]

Also, one might say "We discussed." or "We've discussed", which are (I believe) still intransitive, but sounds better than the retarded crap you've been subjected to in HoC.

[pfiddy]

I believe the way you'd say "discuss" in German would be intransitive.

[rehana]

According to Vince, it's common in Indian English.