General Chat

Liz Purple, I need you especially (so I'll send you a PM).

Who here uses the expression "back and forth", and who doesn't?

I mention Liz because I did a search of the boards here and she seems particularly fond of the expression. ;)


Let me illustrate the expression, in case anybody really isn't familiar with it:

I was going back and forth to the bathroom all night after eating that fish.
She kept going back and forth to the kitchen to get things she'd forgotten.
He went back and forth between Manchester and London all his life.

or

The pendulum was swinging back and forth.


Am I speaking a foreing language??

I'm being told (by a good working-class northern England girl) that no good working-class northern England girl would ever say such a thing as "back and forth". "Too formal" she says. "Formal?! How ridiculous!" say we.

She wouldn't say she went back and forth to the kitchen.
Apparently, she'd say she came and went from the kitchen.
She wouldn't tell her dog to stop walking back and forth when it wants out.
She'd tell her dog to stop coming and going.

All of which sounds utterly dorky to me, and like some poor ESL student trying to speak the lingo.


So?

Back and forth? or not back and forth?

AND WHATS MORE THERES









IN & OUT,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,RUNS AN HIDES

Dear Janey

Hello

Hope you are well.

I usually 'there and back'!

I suppose there is a deep psychological process behind this!

Oh, I have taken your advice about the door card for unwanted canvassers.

Have also sorted out the 'pea shooter' from the 'pee-shooting'!
Although the latter would be an excellent idea to ward off these cavassers.

Take care

Very best wishes
xx

Back and forth would be the proper english for it, and terms like 'came and went' all boil down to regional accents and dialect. I think in the south, many would say backwards and forwards,. coming and going, (came and went), in and out, etc.

It all depends which part you come from, and in normal speech, these would be used rather than the back and forth, which would be written.

But Dizzi! You have to vote!

Do you say "back and forth" when you're talking ordinary talk to ordinary people??

After an undefined 'turn', I have been going back and forth to my GP and specialists. It is a very common phrase here in Oz, used by everyone.

Yes budgie, to and fro is another one, though I do say, to'ing and fro'ing lol

Yes, BR, a couple of us did mock her with "to and fro".

But I need you too! Be *serious* now!

Be honest, if you think "back and forth" is "antiquated" and pompous, say so!

In that case it *will* be a transatlantic difference, because here, "back and forth" is something any old person would say any old day.

Especially if they ate some bad fish before going to bed. ;)

I'm a Southerner, but sometimes use 'back and forth' when indicating a repeated action, rather than a one-off visit somewhere.

Gwyn

Well this is just appalling, people taking advantage of my thread to say any old thing about any old thing. Siiiigh.


"Back and forth":

___ yes

___ no

I'd go with TeresaW's 'backwards and forwards' orally as well as Dizzi's 'in and out' informally ie if the offspring (or OH!) can't make their minds up which room they want to be in. . But then I'm a Southerner.

Back and forth is slightly dated.
edit - so NO, not in 2010

I DONT USE EITHER
IF ANYTHING
BACK AND FORWARD
SORRY IM UNEDUCATED SOB SOB SOB

nope.... I say Back and for....... forget about the th

to and fro is good, though... or in and out... it sort of depends what you are doing..... pacing the floor is back and for... or to and fro

so is getting stuff in and out of a car....... to the house for instance.

I go back and for Chat and General.......

But I would write back and forth.... and haven't a clue why! It feels sort of Queen's English!

And now I am off to bed.... sorry, lolol

Love

Daff xxxx

HAH, DET.

You were one of the people my search found saying "back and forth". Hah.

(It was "switch back and forth" between windows on the monitor, I believe.)

Really?? !!! Well I never! lol Must have been reading a period novel about that time :-)

Nuh uh!

What I think is that when people see it written down, they think "set forth", "sally forth", "and so forth" ... ew, weird.

But they probably say it a lot more than they think. ;)


Other than that, with Australia and Canada definitely on board, and the US at the other site, I think what we have is a centuries-old turn of phrase (apparently it dates from 1605-1615) that may have fallen out of use in England, but is alive and kicking in the colonies!

Its regional sayings...

back and forth would be used for,,,in some parts but there and back in others,,,,,

to and fro,on a swing
there and back for journey,
back and forth as in pacing the floor in a maturnity ward,:}}
in and out ,as in from room to room or pub crawl......:}

then there up an down,as in in out of bed all night at the loo if you've eaten bad fish,:}}}}}}}}}

Maybe that's the part I didn't make completely clear -- it's a *repeated* coming and going that we have here.

You wouldn't really say, if you got up and went to the kitchen to get a spoon and came back and said down, that you'd gone back and forth. Especially because, as someone pointed out at the other site, you've really gone *forth and back*. ;)

Up and down all night to the bathroom, yes. Especially up and down all night to the baby. I wouldn't say back and forth to the baby. ;) But that's because you were down and you got up, hm.

I will agree that back and forth is slightly more formal than to and fro.

I use them both being from North and South. I am more formal when I write, so back and forth would be the phrase to use...or if I am in a meeting :-))...this could go on and on lol...definitely repeated.

Backwards and forwards...To and from


There will be no-one left soon yer know....no-one to tell anyone what anything used to mean....there will just be a fog of illiteracy and undo-able crosswords :-(((

See, that's funny -- because to a North American, "to and fro" sounds downright *silly*. ;)

People would laugh at you if you said it out loud, and if you used in writing they'd assume you fancied yourself Jane Austen, I think!

Okay, not quite so much -- I've heard people say "to and fro", but I don't think I'd ever say it myself.

Besides, with mine, you just have to say "back and forth to the bathroom". With yours, you have to say "to and fro to the bathroom" or some danged thing, and that just gets unwieldy. ;)

And in fact, the original question was about "back and forth *between* the kitchen and the living room". Lounge, if you prefer.

"To and fro between the kitchen and the lounge"? Tell me that ain't weird.