Bad Grammar

[Tonyblack]

Welcome from me too!

[=Tamar]

I guess I understand that this is how language evolves - through mistakes that are repeated until they become accepted. I guess grammar evolves the same way, but can someone please explain how this structure got into the language: "My lawn needs mowed." "My car needs washed." I hear it so often since moving from Texas to Iowa that I fear getting hooked and starting to use it myself! I never heard this usage in Texas, where bad grammar has become idiomatic.

I never heard or read that form until 2011, and I do read widely and I have traveled to most of the United States and to the UK and Canada as well. I have no idea where that formation came from. I dislike it intensely because English already has at least two simple structures that do the same thing. One form is "My car needs washing," the other is "My car needs to be washed." There is no need for the change; it doesn't save words, it doesn't save time, and it is less clear. I will now go grumble into my cocoa.