On Tomorrow

@Milan ... read my post just above yours. The right phrase is "on the morrow" OR "tomorrow". When you say "on tomorrow" you're wrongly doubling up on the prepositions. Pick one or the other but not both at the same time!

I must say..I came upon this post because I, ,too,have heard it more than a person should have to endure!!! Sadly, I am a teacher, and my administrator uses it every day-yes, this phrase is broadcasted for all the students!!!! It drives me nuts, and we teachers snicker behind his/ her back-but none of us would DARE correct him/her. I've not done any research in the matter, & I do not claim to be an expert, but, I do have a couple of undergraduate degrees in education and a Master's degree with an add-on specialist certificate in Reading Education. With that said, I live in the South-Georgia, to be exact, and I was educated in the very system in which I teach-a public school system where I was never, EVER taught the phrase "on tomorrow".

Oh yeah, did I mention that my admin is African-American??????
"Just sayin"

"...people that are subordinate to those whom they take issue with." Surely you mean "...people who are subordinate to those with whom they take issue." You are evidently not one who avoids the relative pronoun and replaces it with the ugly "that" - you have used the "wh-" words quite a lot elsewhere in your rant, and unlike the majority of people who couldn't give a rats a%# you state very positively that you could.

Subordinate clauses I know about, subordinate people not. Is it something to do with the army? Schoolboys rebuked for insubordination yes - very old-fashioned idea, I think, suggestive of the notion that their superiors are owed subordination ex officio. But that's all about something else - my own mystification is why people use " that", desperately avoiding "who" and its variants, no matter how ugly the result. For instance "people that are subordinate ...".

Well then, I suppose spell check use is even more important to me than O O's use of "on tomorrow" and attempts to dis' those of us who do know standard spelling and grammar.

I'm an African American born and raised in California, but currently living in Georgia...."on tomorrow" and "on yesterday" is a regional phrase not cultural. It irks the heck out of me to hear and read it on a daily basis, lol!!!

Funny this post is still going. I'm in Memphis and it is ONLY a certain demographic here that says it EVERY day... In a Fortune 500 company - and they don't know any better... I think it is an attempt to sound learned.

@astudent ... Maybe you should at least read the title ... "on the morrow" is ok ... but what we're talking about here is "on TOmorrow" which is not ok.

@Wackyruss ... Hav you ever ask'd your coworkers why they say "on tomorrow"? I would hope that you're friendly enuff with them that they wouldn't be offended by the question.

@Zee, I don't know what deal of the South that you're in but as a Sutherner, I haven't heard "soda water" hereabouts. It's more often cola or coke (sometimes soda by itself). Truth be told, "coke" is somewhat generic in South. I'v heard folks say, "Bring me a coke from the store" and will be ask'd, "What kind of coke?" I think "pop" is a yankee word. I'v only heard that when up in yankeeland.

@Brus - Words change, this is from Oxford Dictionaries Online, for 'demographic' (not 'demographics'), and it means more than just class or race:

"noun - a particular sector of a population - the drink is popular with a young demographic"

You may see it as coy, but it is also efficient: one word where several would have been needed otherwise, and nearly everyone knows what it means. Actually, the bit about it being more common in the US was really only my intuition, but it seems to borne out by this:

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=demographic_NOUN%3Aeng_us_2012%2Cdemographic_NOUN%3Aeng_gb_2012&year_start=1960&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=

But my real problem is that you should take it on yourself to baldly criticise Zee's choice of words, especially when it is quite a normal word in the circumstances. The way I was brought up, that's simply bad manners.

I grew up in North Georgia, and I never heard this expression until I moved to the metro Atlanta area. Moreover, it appears to be an expression of non-standard English used by my peers who are African American. I cannot think of a single Caucasian who uses this expression. I'm in the teaching profession by the way, and I've heard this used daily since I moved to this area 6 years ago. It's definitely a dialect thing, but in my experience it's specific to the southern black culture.

It isn't a southern thing. ..it's an African American thing exclusively.

It is not correct to say on tomorrow, on yesterday, or on today. These words are adverbs and do not require the preposition "on". Prepositions require an object. Since days of the week are nouns, they are objects for prepositions. It is incorrect to assume it is OK to use 'on' with all expressions of time. The redundancy is not that the word 'to' is in tomorrow. The redundancy is that tomorrow, is an adverb that already designates a place in time, and does not require a preposition.

Although it has become common usage in some parts of the county to say 'on tomorrow (yesterday, today), it is poor grammar and makes even the most educated person sound stupid.

This has nothing to do with being Southern. Only black people say it, and it is an insult to correct English, just like "axe" for "ask." Nomesayin?

I am from South Carolina and never heard this term until I started working in the school system in NE Florida. I continually hear this term from colleagues; educated teachers, administrators, and staff. I have also heard it used by news people on the local TV stations. Don't attack me but I only hear people of color use this term, so I wonder if it is cultural?

Douglas,
Yes, I see now... I read it incorrectly... I ignored your placement of commas, which we all know can drastically change the meaning of a sentence.

I hear it occasionally and it sounds silly to me.

I can honestly say that it is not only the African-Americans that use "On Today" or "On Tomorrow". I've heard it several times in our board meeting by the event leader who is a White Alabama Tide grad... Again, as I stated in my previous post this isn't limited to one race. This is a phrase that I have never heard while growing up in Colorado - so I just had to investigate.

I am not bothered by "on tomorrow." Its meaning is clear—as clear as "on Tuesday." It's the same construction. I hear it rarely, I admit. But really, haven't you— Tom, and Millie and all you others—something better to vex over?

I work in the non-profit sector and several colleagues use "on tomorrow" and "on yesterday". One colleague who uses this colloquialism is from Georgia, has a Master's degree and works in Upper Management. I am from the east cost and live in the midwest. I find the Shakespeare correlation reasonable of much of southern english is significantly poetic. Maybe not sonnetical (clearly not a word but thought it would be fun).
For me personally, I struggle with the Minnesota putting a preposition at the end of a sentence and omitting the indirect or direct object.
Ex: Instead of : Would you like to come with me to the store? They say: I am going to the store, would you like to come with?

Anyhow, cool site glad I found it!

My coworker just said to a customer "I'm calling to find out if your payment went out on last Friday." This did not surprise me. She mutilates the language constantly. By the way, I live in Michigan so if this is a southern thing, it has migrated. I hear people committing this atrocity all the time and the impression I get from most of them is that they are trying to sound intelligent. It isn't working.

This is such an odd little turn of phrase.

I live in Birmingham, AL and have only heard this in the past five years or so. I've only observed it with African-American co-workers, but I don't think that makes it an exclusively African-American "thing." I went to public schools here in Alabama and I've never heard an educator use it.

Although it may make sense that it derived from "on the morrow" I really don't think that most of the people I hear using it are trying to say that.

My guess is that it is a blending of different versions of the Bible ... http://bible.cc/james/4-14.htm ... Hinging on which version that is being read, it is "on the morrow" or "tomorrow". I can see how it may hav started, but I can't say why it is more common among American blacks.

I have lived in the South my entire life...mostly in GA, but for the last 9 years in TN. As an English teacher I can honestly say that I have NEVER heard anyone use the phrase "on tomorrow"! It is definitely not a Southern thing!

Hi,

I too heard about "on tomorrow", According to me it is right.

My supporting factors are :
Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

at for a PRECISE TIME
in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
on for DAYS and DATES

"Meeting will be on tomorrow" (grammatically its right :))

PS: Please correct me it is wrong..

I have taught at a public, inner city school in south Florida, and a rural school in South Carolina, and had never heard the phrase "on tomorrow" or "on yesterday" until I started teaching in Mobile, Alabama. I hear it just about every single day during the announcements from the principal. Every time she says it, I cringe! I simply thought she had horrible grammar! Tonight I was watching Saturday Night Live in which they did a hilarious skit at Booker T Washington high school prom. The principal used the term 2-3 times. I busted out laughing, then started googling the expression and found this site. I definitely think it is a southern thing, and it is regional to New Orleans, Mobile, and southern Georgia areas after reading the posts here.

Come to Richmond City Public schools in Richmond, VA and hear "aks," "on tomorrow," "I be, he be...", and more from teachers, administrators and students. Then try to teach "Standard English" and spelling to students from other countries for their daily use and standardized tests without saying, "Say what I am saying, not what you hear on the loudspeaker or from other teachers."
I am all about respect and tolerance. I also know that high stakes reading and writing tests will be scored with rubrics, and Scantrons-not respect.

Most of you are soooo silly. How do you feel about the use of "And" at the beginning of a sentence? Just a rhetorical question. Please don't answer. Most of the complaints about the use or misuse of words or phrases in the English language are coming from people that are subordinate to those whom they take issue with. What does that tell you. Oh oh...there's another one... "whom" or "who" ? :-) Time to come down off of the high horse everyone. If this forum is where you find "voice", then you have bigger problems that having to "hear" poeple around you say "on tomorrow"... which is a phrase I use very intentionally, very often. And (?), I could give a rats a%# what any of you think about it. :-)

To clarify, I mean that 'subordinate' (people) are not, by definition, those who dare take issue with their superiors, so Objective Observer's remarks are a wee bit mysterious.

In Fort Worth I only hear "on tomorrow" used by African-Americans, particularly those in educational settings. I assumed it was a cultural thing and for some peculiar reason they seem to think they "sound educated." Of course, I'm sure to be branded a racist since I have noted this observation. As usual, any non-African-American comments are automatically branded as racist.

I have lived in the south a good bit of my life, and have lived throughout other regions of the U.S. as well. From my experience, use of the phrase "on tomorrow" or "on yesterday" is not a "southern" norm, but rather more closely ties to a specific demographic profile, regardless of education.

I know I am years behind on this post, but I thought it was just me who felt this way! I live in Tennessee and I've been hearing this prepostion now for a couple of years. It really bothers me because it's so uneccessary when speaking of the day before, the current day, or the day after. I totally disagree with "on yesterday" and "on today" and "on tomorrow." Believe it or not, I have heard all three combinations mentioned in schools, churches and the workplace. It wasn't until a reading specialist at one of the schools I tutored at finally shared her frustration, "I wish people with correct grammar would get on the intercom...and we wonder why our students struggle. Next we'll have kids saying, "Yay, I get to go to the football game on today." :)

Leezie, of course you are right. These phrases are colloquialisms, not Standard English, and living actoss the Pond I have never heard them used. But I fear your friend has, too, committed a solecism in suggesting they have to do with grammar: they do not. The Romans had a similar trick with town names, where words such as "in", "from" and "to" were omitted ( Romam = to Rome, Romae = at Rome, Roma = from Rome) but were put in almost all other situations. In English we leave out "on" for tomorrow, today and yesterday, but Americans like to leave it out for names of days of the week, too, where across the pond we happily say "on Monday" or "on Mondays", for example. But all that is not under the heading of grammar, which concerns itself with working out such things as sorting out "he/him" or "they/them" or "she/her" according to the function of words within the context of a sentence.
I share your reservation about cute colloquialisms being used in schools, where we are supposed to be taught how to prepare for whatever life offers, as the pupils or students may confuse them with Standard English and make themselves look like dopes in future years at times when they must be able, when the occasion demands, to show their employers and customers they know better. Do their teachers not show them the way how to do it? Do they themselves not know any better? However, I like the idea of such colloquialisms being used in less formal situations, where they do not 'matter' in this way, churches, and most workplaces, where they just add to the fun of life's rich comedy. Nobody minds the overexcited pastor getting his words in a twist as he rouses the crowd to a frenzy of ecstasy, indeed it is known that speaking in tongues is all part of a good crowd-pleaser; the blue-collar worker is hardly expected to modulate his vowels nor his syntax in harmony with the strictest dictates of some grumpy old grammarian. But educate the young so that they might be equipped to know which is Standard and which is local dialect. It is not hard: give them books to read. The publishers would not publish them if they were not written in good English, would they?
Your kids who are pleased they are going to the football game on today may just be saying they are pleased that the match is not off today because of the bad weather, but has been declared on, after all. I speak facetiously, of course.

Haha, this just reminds me of archaic english. I haven't read all of this, but I'm surprised the people writing with their big, long words and short, hard words don't seem to have mentioned that "on the morrow" is a very, very old phrase.

Perhaps it is the rest of the country that phased out the use of the phrase, and not the other way around? Northeast Georgia is actually one of the places in the US where the language has changed the least over the past few hundred years.

I live in Memphis and hear this almost every day. I have never heard anyone outside of the African American population use it. The ages of the people using it are in their 20's, 30's and 40's. I cannot stand it.

People are going to think what they want regardless of what you say. Although this bothers me a lot, I had to stop and take a look at myself after the above comment. The poster was right, there are many, many more things to worry about than people saying "on tomorrow." The thing is, we could show them this blog and they will not stop. I am saddened, however, by the number of people that keep speaking of "a certain demographic," or blatently saying it is an African American thing. I personally perfer the term Black, and no, no one in my "African American" family uses on tomorrow, on yesterday, or on today...nor do any of my friends, whether they went to college or dropped out of high school!

Ag, Zee! I thought my little offering was impenetrable, but yours is filled with weird things like "demographic" and, er, actually that's the worst one. I like your reference to " I do nothing to my R's". It reminds me of the Scots lassie who was told, admiringly, "I like the way you roll your Rs" and she said "Och, it's these high heels I'm wearin'".

The Caucasian community? Do white folk all live in the same areas, like in South Africa with apartheid before 1994? Or do you really mean Caucasian? I have not been to the Caucasus, but I plan to visit Georgia and Azerbaijan sometime soon. African-American?! It reminds me of the American politician who said that Nelson Mandela was probably the finest African-American of his time, only to remember that our national hero Madiba actually has no connection with America, so "African" would be better, only there are lots of white Africans too, so maybe "black" would be sounder, or maybe not because ... he ended up babbling, or indeed, he had babbled from the start ...!

Would "black and white" make things clearer and save a lot of bollock-speak? I am suspicious that you are a victim of folk who think political correctness, rather than the joke it is, is meant to be serious, and you believe them too. Oh, please! Sharpen up your ideas!

@Zee...first of all, your post to @Catrice is full of grammatical errors. I would not be quite so judgmental if the entire post wasn't about how well you use the English language.
Now that we have that out of the way, I would like to address the issue at hand. "On tomorrow" is unfortunately used at the school where I teach. The administrator that uses this phrase, along with "on today", "on yesterday", etc., is indeed a black woman. Nothing racist about that FACT. Just because you are an exception to the black population, doesn't mean that our observations are not true. "It is what it is"(for lack of a better/more grammatically correct phrase). I have also heard her husband use the "on tomorrow" phrase, and he, too, is black. Racist? No, I think not, but people such as yourself seem to always be on guard-ready to defend the entire black population simply bc of the color of their skin. There are poor examples of people in every race and culture, but that doesn't mean that you and I are represented by those bad examples.

Also, one last note : The topic referring to the "soda water" vs "pop" does not belong on this thread at all. These are true examples of cultural terminology; the difference being that any of the terms for a fizzy drink are mere preferences according to the region from where the speaker originates and is not "slang" nor grammatically incorrect phrases as opposed to the controversial "on tomorrow" faux pas.

Great letter from Wackyruss who I assume has Russian ancestors (the name). No preposition with 'yesterday' etc, as in Latin. It does remind me of the quirky thing in South African speak where we said if asked 'when?', "just now" as our answer, which elsewhere means "I am already doing it, it is happening and being done as we speak" but in those parts means, or meant "soon, sometime" or even "I'm not actually going to do it, ever, but you don't want to know that". "I'll get it just now" meant therefore "it is now on my list of things to do soon, or sometime, or never".
This may have been peculiar only to English speaking white South Africans. Black South Africans did not in my time use this expression, as I remember. Or am I meant, in the light of the 'African American' euphemism for 'black' to call most of my countrymen "African African South Africans". I must confess that to me is almost more silly an expression than African American.
(Why ever do we need a euphemism for 'black'? Is there something wrong with being black? By the way, love the comic expression 'ebonics' employed there by Wackyruss. That one was coined with a healthy dose of humour.)

Wackyruss he belong to a PC society: "in this PC society, you can't say anything or you are an instant "racist"". Oh dear, resign from this society at once, I advise you, especially if, as I suspect, you mean "politically correct". The term was invented in the 19th C as a joke and used, tongue in cheek, by socialists such as Lenin in the early days of the Soviet Union to enforce ideas which did not bear too much scrutiny. it is a bit like saying "it is so because I say so, and I'm your mother". Lefties all knew it was said in jest all through the 1980s, and in the 1990s we all heard about it, and knew it was a joke, then suddenly by the '00s lots of people began to take it seriously. It is a mighty dangerous doctrine, to tell people to believe what they are told because "we say so" which is the same thing as "politically correct".
If you think I am havering, look at "political correctness" on Google. There are many hilarious entries there, as well as a great deal of wisdom. I have yet to find one single site to suggest there is anything good about it.

It is astonishing that Americans seem drawn into it.

Warsaw Will -
I don't like 'demographic' here because it is a euphemism, meaning in the example I cited something along the lines of 'class' or 'race' but too coy to say, and it is ungrammatical in all the examples bandied here because it is an adjective, from the noun "demographics" = 'the science of population statistics' but in your examples it is being used ungrammatically as a noun, a nasty habit creeping into modern English usage, and popular in the Antipodes. You say it is in wide use in the USA too. Yes, it is. That's what I'm grumbling about.

I am black and from Houston, Texas and I do not say on tomorrow, on today, on yesterday. I have recently noticed some colleagues in a professional business environment using these phrases. It made be think maybe I missed a grammar class or something since I don't use on in this manner. I am definitely not a grammar champion or anything but it just sounds so off to me I had to google it! Lots of interesting opinions here...

I have been reading these posts, which are all very interesting, re. "on tomorrow". I am 60+ years old and what no one has mentioned is that the usage is fairly new. Until about 10 to 15 years ago, I had never heard this from anyone, black or white. It makes me wonder how, when, and where did it all begin?

I have a roomate that uses "on tomorrow" and "on today" quite frequently. It's like nails on a chalkboard every time that she says it! She is from New Jersey and I am from the South, so I don't think that it has anything to do with being from the North or South.

@JLB ... Answer one of her emails with the mistake in it ... only send it to her and not anyone else. Softly tell her that you believe this to be a mistake but if she thinks it is good English then to please cite her source for saying so. Otherwise she should stop writing it when she sends out emails to the parents. Don't jump on her and tell her how you were taught ... blah, blah, blah ... You're trying to get to take a look at the mistake and stop doing rather than put her on the defensiv.

As has been mentioned several times above, "on the morrow" is a very old expression, with the meaning the next day or the day, with nearly twenty instances in the King James Bible. It seems to have lasted after right up to the end of the nineteenth century. You can also find it in later, often in religious texts.

"On the morrow when Makbeth beheld them comming in this sort, he first marvelled what the matter ment, but in the end remembred himselfe that the prophesie which he had heard long before that time, of the comming of Birnane wood to Dunsinane Castell was likelie to be now fulfilled." - The History of Makbeth - reprinted from Holinshed's Chronicle 1577

"Whereat ye know not what shall be on the morrow" - King James Bible, 1611

"And on the Morrow , being the 1 2. day of January, about ten of the Clock, the Queens Majesty, with the Lords and Bishops in Parliament Robes, did ride from the Palace to Westminster-Church" - 1682

"on the morrow the weather proving tolerable fair, the bees went to labour as usual" - 1781

"On the morrow he presented me to the king, who received me very graciously" - 1789

"On the 17th July, 1828, a writ of summons was sued out against the defendant Jenner, returnable on the morrow of All Souls" - 1831

"it is no great contention, since, by her own avowal,
she began to love me on the morrow.
And yet on the morrow very little took place." - Robert Louis Stevenson: The Pavilion on the links - 1880

Given that this expression is well know from the bible and the fact that the use of 'on tomorrow' appears to have strong connections with Afro-American church communities (http://random-idea-english.blogspot.com/2014/01/random-thoughts-about-on-tomorrow.html), I wonder if this is where it has come from.

I completely agree with Confused in Dallas! It has always been an African American who has used it in my presence. This happens a lot at my place of employment and the persons that are saying these phrases sound quite uneducated. Unfortunately, these are the leaders in charge of our children's education.

@Byron: Over the centuries a form of "standard" Enlglish has come about, used by government, business and education so that all may communicate clearly. This does not mean that any one dialect is wrong or bad; just different and perhaps not so widely understood.

"wrong" in this context should mean "not conforming to generally accepted anglo principles"

(cf "GAAP" !)

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1597064

http://www.1066andallthat.com/english_middle/standard_04.asp

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/99087473.pdf

Until I moved to Atlanta, I'd never heard the anyone use the "on tomorrow", and I'm from the South. As an educator, I hate listening to my principal say this on the morning announcements. I have to say that I feel I've done my job as a teacher when one of my second graders asked me why the principal used a preposition before the word tomorrow.

It is ironic that I come across your blog. I too have felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand when someone is speaking of a time frame and specifically tagging the "on", to it.
Unfortunately, it is now accepted as part of speech and even presented in public forum.
Imagine if you will, president of the University presenting graduate degrees and referring to a special program that is going to begin "on tomorrow." I knew then it was a losing battle.

I live is south Louisiana and I hear it more and more. It's driving me nuts.

It is not proper grammar. However, it does seem to be a popular phrase in the south, since I live in South Carolina and hear it a lot. I teach ELA and have for years. I explain it this way: You cannot do something ON tomorrow. How are you going to do that? Stand on tomorrow, or a piece of paper that has the word tomorrow on it? It is always best to leave that out. EX: We have a test tomorrow. NOT: We have a test on tomorrow.

I live in Tennessee, which is home to southerners from every state. I began hearing my African American boss use the expression "on today" in her emails. Usually the context was along the lines of, "I hope all is well with you on today." I thought it was just a quirk she had because I had never heard anyone else speak that way. Then, a few months later, another African American woman joined our team who also uses such expressions. Could it be an aspect of southern dialect that is exclusive to African American culture? Have y'all noticed this or have you heard "on today" and "on tomorrow" from white people?

This is an old world English term sometimes trapped in areas of Appalachia, like many other old German, Scottish, Irish and English phrases (or variations thereof). It's commonly used among religious African American folks in Georgia and Alabama from my experience. The reason so many comments have referenced NE Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina etc.. is the Appalachian connection.

You are absolutely correct. I believe it is something that was in the southern region and has found itself in the northeastern region. It is somewhat redundant to have a preposition indicating when and then use a word indicating when.

@ Chrissy

Since you are college educated at least get the facts straight:

http://random-idea-english.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/random-thoughts-about-on-tomorrow.html

KING HENRY
We are in God’s hand, brother, not in theirs.
March to the bridge. It now draws toward night.
Beyond the river we’ll encamp ourselves,
And on tomorrow bid them march away.
Henry V Act 3, Scene 6, Page 7

So Shakespeare used "poor grammar and .... stupid."

http://nfs.sparknotes.com/henryv/page_132.html

http://random-idea-english.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/random-thoughts-about-on-tomorrow.html

It is perfectly normal to say "until tomorrow", "for tomorrow", "by tomorrow", "after tomorrow", so "on tomorrow" is not that much of a stretch.

https://goo.gl/FBSZMx

It’s a church thing. I’m willing to bet that the people heard saying “on tomorrow” are heavily influenced by the church. Church folk are the people I’ve ever heard say it.

I just had this conversation with my husband a few days ago. He has never heard it but I have been hearing the phrase “ on tomorrow “ frequently. I was born and raised in the Baltimore area and never heard it until about 8 years ago. It makes me cringe when I hear it. I never hear it 50 miles away on the shore.

I've only heard black people use "on." Definitely not a southern thing, maybe just a southern BLACK thing. They have their own version of English. Lmfao

I’m originally from Southern California and moved to South Carolina in 1981. I’ve heard “on tomorrow”, “on yesterday”, and “I’m not for sure”, “on accident” and most recently “this yesterday” ???? These errors in grammar continue to vex. I wonder what Ann Landers would have suggested as a polite way of correcting people in a spirit of educating them.

This is NOT a southern thing (Or maybe I should say GA thing). My supervisor is from TX and she uses it and it's the first time I've heard it used. I grew up just outside Atlanta and currently live in West GA. It bothers me when she uses it because she is educated and posses a master's degree.

Oh so now I'm getting published. Just wanted to chime in that it is indeed a Southern Black thing that sort of lowers your regard for the person writing or speaking that way. And it has nothing to do with being snobbish or feeling you are better than that person. There are many different tones, accents and adaptations of English around the world but some yardsticks should stay the same. If it is done deliberately rather than out of ignorance, that's different. For example Arundhati Roy in her Booker-winning novel is full of it - spelling, for example "yooseless goose", and describing a barrier at the airport that separates "the Meeters from the Met and the Greeters from the Gret." That is her way of rebelling against the British Colonial rule and the imposition of a foreign language.

I am from the South and I have never used "on tomorrow." That is incorrect English.

[...] it a couple of time recently. Naturally, being a grammar geek, I did some research and I found this conversation about the very same subject on Pain in the English. Some of the commenters said that they thought [...]

I'm currently dating a guy that always uses the phrase "on tomorrow," and only minutes ago, I received an e-mail from a colleague that used it as well. So, I decided to Google it for clarification. The guy I'm seeing is from Georgia, and I am too; different parts, my colleague is from Texas (where we all currently reside). I too thought it was a slip-up when I first heard it, but it has become repetitious.

I have never heard this "on tomorrow" phrase, but one that drives me batty is "graduate high school." "To graduate is an intransitive verb. One may graduate from high school, but what is happening when one graduates a school? Can anyone give me an action analysis of that?

I hear a lot of nouns used as verbs...my personal hate is the misuse of "action". You can commit to an action, you can perform an action, but you do not "action something"!!! Everytime I hear that I want to slap someone in the head.

A close second is the misuse of dialogue. Why can't they just say they're going to talk or have a conversation rather than "dialogue each other"! Business Analysts and Project Managers...bah... they are the bain of English...

I hear it daily by teachers and students at the school where I teach.
(Miami Gardens,Fl)

I have also heard this. It actually drives me nuts because it sounds ignorant and really pains the ears. The people I hear it from live in Atlanta GA. It has to be some kind of southern thing because I have traveled all over the world and have never heard it spoken anywhere else.

Sorry, my typos were atrocious, wanted to claify- being Creole- African American, Native American, and French or Multi-racial.

@kph - I'm with you. I lived in Memphis for many years and I don't recall hearing it. If I did, it must not have been often enough to make an impression. What I have heard is "onto tomorrow" at the end of day to wrap it up meaning "until or 'til tomorrow" and that's ok with me.

As for ask, aks (axs) ... I always reply to the person who says, "I'm aksing you." with "Why to do you want to chop me with an ax?"

In OE the verb was ascian (the c=k) and the noun was ascung (and frain) ... in ME the verb was asken and the noun ascung had been dropped for frain and the Latinate word - question.

While the spelling in OE is steady ... it's all over the place in ME from asken to eskien, aschen, eschen, ocsien, acsien, axien, axen, and past tense asked to escade, easkede, and haxede.

In this day and age, I'd rather be clear when I say, "I'm going to ask the boss" that the person doesn't report me to security for threatening to "ax the boss"! lol

@Roxanne ... It's been many years since I graduated from an MCS (Memphis City Schools) school but I assure you that "on tomorrow" wasn't taught in the schools back then. If it is being taught now, then maybe the Shelby County-MCS consolidation will fix that.

Glad I'm not the only one that gets really annoyed at hearing this! I live in the South (Nashville) and hear it from time to time...especially from my boss! My boss is an African American female but I have heard it from a variety of races. I don't know if it's a race thing or a regional thing or a modern thing but I wish it would stop. Sadly, I doubt it will. I've noticed it seems like some people have made a deliberate effort to add that to their vocab and change the way they talk. Such as some radio DJ's. 1-3 years ago. Ugh. It's one of those sayings that has crept up in occurence over the recent years. On tomorrow is just one of the annoying "new" ways to talk I've been hearing. Things have a way of doing that whether we like it or not.

Shaune has my total agreement: it is refreshing to read that I am not alone in wanting to strike people who commit such atrocities upon the English language as to use "action" as a verb. For years I had a boss who had made his way to England from the colonies, who always wanted to "action" things, and "farewell" people. ( In my case he eventually did. ) Of course we all mocked him for these examples, but the one which gives me the greatest annoyance these days is used by so many people that I dare not laugh: people who go about "sourcing" things. Source is not a verb. It comes from "surgo" in Latin, to rise, and is not transitive. "Soudre" in French, too, is a verb, and it means to spring forth, also not transitive. You cannot source a thing. Source is a noun. "It sourced in Africa" sounds all wrong, because it is, (intransitive) but "I sourced it in Africa" (transitive) is even more horrible, I reckon. "Its source is in Africa" is an odd way of saying "It comes from Africa", but at least it is grammatical. But there is no need whatever to coin a new word for "find a supplier" or whatever these folk think they mean when they talk about "sourcing" things.
I thought all these grammatical and linguistic horrors came from American English, but I see from the comments throughout this site that I was wrong. The British seem not to care at all about what is happening to the English language; Americans do. Keep up the good work!!

@Brus: From the OED: Source verb [ with obj. ]
• obtain from a particular source: each type of coffee is sourced from one country.
• find out where (something) can be obtained: she was called upon to source a supply of carpet.

@Brus ... Changing a noun to verb used to require a prefix ... knave (n), beknave (v); friend (n), befriend (v) ... but now one can friend (v) someone on Facebook. I'm not sure if the opposite is defriend or unfriend.

But we see it in other ways. One can xerox something and then fedex it overnight. I'd only get a little bent out of shape if the meaning wasn't clear.

BTW: ... railroad (v) : 2 [ no obj. ] (usu. as noun railroading) travel or work on the railroads. (OED)

@Sabu ... If your coworker had said, "on Friday" or "last Friday", she would have been ok. But the two together "on last Friday" doesn't work.

@AnWulf...I know.

Typo error..Please correct me, if it is wrong.

Today, tomorrow and yesterday: no preposition.

Days of the week: preposition 'on', eg: on Tuesday, on Wednesday, etc. (Americans leave out the 'on', however.)

Dates: 'on the' for numbers, eg 'on the 5th of November'

Months: 'In' November, 'on' the 5th of November.

Years: 'In' 1776. On the 24th of August, (in) 1776. 'In' is a bit redundant here, and is usually left out.

Americans use a shorthand version of the above, leaving out many of the prepositions.

I think that phrase will be Ok in both way.
Use "on" or not just make it shorter. >

When will Americans stop viewing each other by race? Most people around the world view us all as Americans. The labeling of colors needs to stop!! That irritates me most about this country. It's an American problem that need to be corrected. Why not correct the person you hear or keep your opinions to yourself.

But Wow!! My husband corrected me today of misusing the phrase on today. I thought it was merely petty. In my opinion, the American English language is messed up anyways by all. It's not the Savior to life. My point, many are well educated and are living successfulregardless of their misuse of words or the pronunciation.There are more important matters that need or attention.

A comment from above:
"I'll return this report to you on tomorrow." Adverbs can not be the object of a preposition.

Your problem is that in English "tomorrow" is either noun or an adverb. See this Web site that presents results from multiple dictionaries and it is clearly labeled: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tomorrow?s=t
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Hence. "tomorrow" is a valid object for a preposition. Why not?
Perhaps saying "on tomorrow" is merely an emphatic way of saying "tomorrow" (the adverb). Has that ever occured to you? English often has empatic expressions for ideas. We even have the "emphatic mood" for verbs, and many other languages do not have this feature.

Back to "tomorrow". In German the noun and the adverb are clearly distinguishable because in German, all nouns are capitalized, and also nouns take articles. Therefore, "morgen" is an adverb, but "der Morgen" and "ein Morgen" are nouns. However, it is confusing because "morgen" means tomorow or morning, and "Morgen" means "morning", but "Morgen ist auch noch ein Tag," means
"Tomorrow is another day." --------- (Scarlett O'Hara ?)
They get around all of this because there are a lots of idiomatic phrases.
"Morgen" is also the first part of a lot of compound nouns in which it usually means "morning".
"morgens" is an adverb that refers to things that happen every morning, or nearly so, and in "Morgens fahre ich nach Arbeit", which means, "Every morning,I drive to work."

German has a lot of these time advebs that end in "s" for habitual actions, such as:
nachmittags, nachts, sommers, winters, montags, freitags,
"Nachmittags" means "every afternoon". An example sentence would be:
"Winters fahre ich nach Osterreich furs Schnee und Schii," means
"Every winter I go to Austria for the snow and the skiing."
D.A.W.

I feel the same way. I was in an educational setting and the gentleman who used the phrase had a beautiful, "preacher-like" bass voice. I heard the 20-something students start to use the phrase. It bothered me so much I had to pray to let it go! On today, not on tomorrow! lol.

@Catrice....It makes my blood boil, when some people's ignorance is showning. The phrase absolutely drives me crazy. However, being "African American" with family and friends raised in the north, west,east and "deep" south....and not one member young or old says "ON" any day. From my personal experience I have to agree it's not a ethnic or racial trend. It's an annoying trend,lol...I think it may a regional thing, just like the use of the word pop instead of soda..that also drives me crazy !!!

@Zee - Just to complicate things, what we call "soda" in the UK is soda water, which I think you call club soda in the States. But according to Wikipedia "In many parts of the US, soda has come to mean any type of sweetened, carbonated soft drink." Which sounds rather like "pop" to me, and which is how Wikipedia also defines pop.

In Britain generally, Coke, Pepsi, Seven-up etc are referred to as fizzy drinks and sometimes as "pop" (American influence, I think), but in Glasgow they're often referred to as "ginger" (the presence or not of ginger is immaterial) and in Edinburgh as "juice", although they're certainly not what you or I would normally think of as juice. It's just all part of life's rich fabric. Are there are any other regional generic words for fizzy soft drinks, I wonder?

We called Coke, Sprite, Pepsi, Faygo, etc. "pop" when I was growing up in Michigan and still do. In the south, where I live now, they called it soda water which irritated me to no end. I think someone told me that pop came from the pop fizzing noise that usually happened when you poured it out at first, and someone else told me it came from the popping noise from popping open the bottle or can.

Perhaps because it is what I grew up with, I still prefer to say pop instead of soda water, and I always say pop when I am with my family otherwise they don't know what I am talking about.

I live in Mississippi...the state known for being first in everything terrible! I thought it was only used here. I am happy (and sad) to see that it is not, and that I am not the only person who is thoroughly irritated by this phrase. It has only been this past year that I have heard this phrase, and like most of you, I thought it was initially a mistake, but it has become more and more common, and I have ONLY heard it used by African-American women. This is not meant to be a slander against any race, this is just FACT!!! I have yet to hear the phrase "on today" "on yesterday" or "on tomorrow" from ANYONE other than black women. However, this would irritate me to hear from anyone. I just wonder where it started and why it is a thing now. How did it come about? Are there lectures or magazines or websites devoted to this sort of issue?? How to Be Grammatically Incorrect and Make it Acceptable. When did adding "on" become "the thing" to do? When did adding the R sound to certain words become the norm? Such as, "I have an appertment (appointment) on tomorrow?" It's almost as if the person in question is going out of their way to be as grammatically incorrect as possible or sound unintelligent. It is apparently different in different locations from reading the above posts, but here, it is almost exclusive to the African-American race.

@ ShannonV...don't you just hate it when something is not suppose to come off as racist, and it's an epic fail. Wow I'm very irritated by the use, and as an "African American" woman I feel that you are just surrounded by a bad example of a small demographic. I do nothing to my R's I speak proper English, and I could list examples of the improper use of the English language by the Caucasian community "in the South"...but this is about "on tomorrow". And you are very wrong, along with anybody else who says it's a black thing, but to give you the benefit of the doubt if it is an African American thing, it is a very minuscule part of that demographic, I assure you. ....Please do not report as FACT, thank you!!!

Ag pleez! I grew up in South Africa where the wonderful speech patterns, accents, and cute ways of saying things were not stupid, or embarrassing, or shameful, but rich material for emulation and use among the cognoscenti, ever since. "Howzitt you ous?" for "Hello, everyone, how are you?" for example. You could write a book about these phrases and indeed it has been done, by 'Rawbone Malong' for example.
'Lekker bly, en level met die grevel', inane but a richly fun way to say "See you on tomorrow, hey?". The "hey" invites the interlocutor permission to find room for argument.

@Zee...Yes, ma'am, I do find it very irritating to be labeled a racist when I am only stating what I have observed. I work in the field of forensic psychology, and mostly with DHS, Youth Court and the Social Security Administration for approximately ten coastal counties in South Mississippi. A majority of my colleagues are brilliant and well-educated black women, and I respect them immensely, and I have great concern and care for the children of all colors that I help on a day to day basis. What I stated as FACT, and still stand behind, is that I have ONLY heard this phrase from black women, and only as of late. These same women I have had the pleasure of working with for the past 14 years did not use this phrase two years ago, nor did they say appertment. This is not dialect they grew up using or gained their degrees using. I grew up here, and I went to school with a few of those ladies, educated by the same people, and it was not common practice. I am asking why has it become common practice to use on before yesterday, today and tomorrow? If this was regional, we would all be using it in our region, and it wouldn't be shocking enough to prompt blogs being written.

I never heard it until I began working in predominantly African American schools in California and Texas. I'm a music teacher, and I am also a "white" person. I was raised on the other side of Houston in the Clear Lake area, which is known for aerospace industry (NASA) and most parents are well educated. We were taught strict grammar rules and my mom was also a Reading teacher so I wasn't let off the hook! It seems very strange to me beause you can say On Monday, On Tuesday etc. all the way to On Saturday, but "Today", "Yesterday", and "Tomorrow" are not actual days of the week in the same vein as MTWThFSaSu! They are terms to describe the present, past, and future. Putting "On" in front seems redundant to me as well. I cringe when my predominantly African American co-workers (including my boss) use this on the morning announcements and at "professional" staff meetings. But, in this PC society, you can't say anything or you are an instant "racist" especially since I'm white as a lily. 'Tis sad, indeed. Maybe I should just start speaking ebonics to fit it around here: I's a-gon aks deez co-workers to speak good 'anglish, but den dey fixin' to say I's a racist! ;)

@Wackygrass - Most people in Britain are brought up speaking a non-standard regional dialect, and have been for centuries. It has been estimated that as many as 85% of children arrive at school with their dialect as their mother tongue. Historically, many of these have had problems speaking and writing standard English, although they all understand it of course. Traditionally, many teachers have discouraged dialect, others talk to the kids in it. (As in the film "Kes")

Nobody doubts the need for kids to be able to use standard English competently, but there is a growing body of research in both North America and Britain which appears to show that children brought up speaking a non-standard dialect learn standard English better when it is studied in a comparative way with their own dialect, rather than being forced on them as a replacement for their own dialect, thus denigrating the way their own parents speak.

There was a bit of debate about this in the UK recently when a Teedside school tried to get the parents to stop their children using dialect in school.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2013/02/06/debate-over-teesside-dialect-and-accent-continues-84229-32755473/2/

Agree entirely with your argument, Wackyruss, except the bit about having to be PC, (you most certainly don't, and mustn't) and I say again, please Google "political correctness" and read the Wikipedia stuff about it for the history and so on, not to mention all the other pieces.

This post is hilarious! That's all I got :)

@ Brus, Bleu, Shannon & whoever (whomever) cares....All the English professors are out with their red pens, lmao. I didn't make it into a black and white issue, until it was presented that way. So please re-read some of the comments made before mine. You didn't jump down anybody else's neck or correct their grammar for saying it was a black expression, so get off my back when I disagreed and said it's not a black only expression.

@brus - I don't really see why you think the use of "demographic" is weird. Its use is not uncommon, especially in the States:

"And in this case, it seems, the commanding officer of a precinct is suggesting an entire demographic be placed under suspicion"- NYT

"If Google+ wants to be the next Facebook, it has to capture the key demographic that drove Facebook's early ... - CNN

"America edging toward demographic cliff?" - Fox News

"Marketers' Dream Demographic: The Smartphone Mom" - Time

"Why the Apple Demographic Is So Important to Orbitz and Retailers" - WSJ

And did your little Scottish girl really pronounce arse with a hard S?

Even though, according to one commenter, the soda /pop thing doesn't belong on this thread, I thought this might regional variation map might be of interest - http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jakatz2/files/spcMap.png

You can find more US regional variation maps at -http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6

I don't think the phrase is not even logical. Tomorrow, I believe, is a blend of the preposition 'to' with morrow, which means the following day. Other phrases that have merged are hereto, herewith, nevertheless, nonetheless, etc. So technically the phrase on tomorrow is actually on to morrow.

*Scratch out the second 'not'.

@Teacher

According to Google's Ngram, it started about 1781 with a infinitesimal percent of 0.0000010225(%) in comparison to tomorrow with a slightly higher percent of 0.0001739213(%). Both have grown since then but with tomorrow dominating (in 2008, tomorrow: 0.0022047169%; on tomorrow: 0.0000071577%). Because Ngram searches books, it can have holes in its data, but because Ngram is not dialectological, it seems hard to accurately gauge the prevalence and distribution of the usage.