[Ads-l] "Needs washed" in Delaware

[Ben Yagoda]

Molly MacMillan, a friend and former student who lives in southern Delaware, messaged me that she’s been encountering more and more examples of constructions like “the grass needs mowed,” or “my hair needs cut.” I reported this is a common Pennsylvania Dutch-ism and referred her to Ben Zimmer’s 2017 Language Log post: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=31585&fbclid=IwAR1VVeyg0YvN08i4bSnmQ0B2PdJ6MxzbtqseMEiqnaocnkn943cz_sEvRnQ

Molly subsequently sent me a screen shot of a (Delaware) real estate ad reporting that “the owner spared no expense so you can move in and enjoy without having any worries of things needing fixed or update.”

Presumably it should be “updated” but I told her I had never seen this in the gerund form. 

Anyone have a sense of whether the construction has spread, either geographically or syntactically?

Ben

Ben Yagoda
Linktree of published pieces: https://linktr.ee/benyagoda
Website: benyagoda.com



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