Re^3: Theory vs. Reality

[BrowserUk]

I've used "please me no end" as a phrase since childhood. And it's certainly not a new usage, as I clearly remember both my Father and Grandmother using it as a part of every day speech.

Like ysth, I never heard the "please me to no end" variation.

I guess that's the thing about natural languages. They evolved, and continue to evolve, on the basis of common usage. The codification of the "rules of grammar", came after the fact. Hence the irregularities that burst the bubble of rule-bound.

I clearly remember an english lesson in which I was taught that you "take things there; and bring them back", but again just this evening in a US movie I heard an apparently well educated character say: "Will you bring him with us"?

This sounds entirely wrong to my ears, but it, and many other "grammar errors", crop up in US movies and books often enough that I can only assume that they are fairly normal speech patterns in the US. Whether they would be acceptable (to whom?), in written english is another matter entirely.