ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Bears feed on/off honey and wild berries.

Mr Wordy — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:26:26 GMT

RayH
"off honey" is very odd sounding.

It's interesting you should say that, Ray, and your view more closely matches the Google stats. To me,"feed off" sounds, well, as I say, casual -- even a bit sloppy, if you like -- but it's something that people definitely do say in my part of the world. I wonder if there might be regional differences here.

Re: Bears feed on/off honey and wild berries.

RayH — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:43 GMT

Bears feed on honey and wild berries.

"off honey" is very odd sounding.

Re: Bears feed on/off honey and wild berries.

Mr Wordy — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:38 GMT

Yes, but again "off" is more casual/colloquial (to me). It's the sort of thing I might say but probably wouldn't write.

Google hits:

"feed on honey": 38,700
"feed off honey": 6

I'd expect more hits for "on" than "off", but this huge disparity rather surprises me.

Bears feed on/off honey and wild berries.

Angliholic — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:39:43 GMT

Bears feed on/off honey and wild berries.

Hi,
Do both of on and off fit in the above? If yes, do they convey the same idea to you? Thanks.