Towards/toward (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Herb Stahlke]

I was taught in high school English that the -s form was an adverb and the
bare form a preposition.  There is a -s suffix that produces adverbs, as in
nowadays or besides, and it analogizes to anyways.


On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 11:46 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Towards/toward (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
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>
> "Towards" actually sounds slightly more normal to me, "toward" being more
> formal.
>
> I guarandamntee you that in my NYC existence I said nothing but "towards,"
> and I would bet that my 19th century grandparents did the same.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 6:00 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Towards/toward (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> >
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> >
> > At 4/11/2014 01:44 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) wrote:
> > >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > >Caveats: NONE
> > >
> > > From a handout, when David Foster Wallace was teaching:
> > >
> http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/03/david-foster-wallace-common-word
> > >-usage-mistakes/
> > >
> > >"1. The preposition towards is British usage; the US spelling is toward.
> > >Writing towards is like writing colour or judgement. (Factoid: Except
> > >for backwards and afterwards, no preposition ending in -ward takes a
> > >final s in US usage.)"
> >
> > How about "amongst"?  :-)
> > Joel
> >
> >
> > >I grew up in Tennessee, and "towards" doesn't sound wrong to me.  Is
> > >this usage more common in the South?
> > >
> > >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> > >Caveats: NONE
> > >
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>
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