Met her on the port last evening

[SlipshodDread]

But they probably heard the English sentence they're asked 99% of the time:
How much does it cost to get off ON Mallorca?
That's surely why so large an amount was stated. :P

Sorry, that doesn't make sense. "off ON" is a complete oxymoron and makes no sense in English in relation to flights.

Of course you mean in the sense of English men getting shit-faced over there, why would they ask the airline?? So either way it doesn't work. Also it's fairly cheap compared to over here in England, hence why people go there to get razzed.

Also Malia in Crete is becoming one of the bigger partying places for English people now, whereas ten years ago all anyone talked about was Ibiza

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by SlipshodDread

Sorry, that doesn't make sense. "off ON" is a complete oxymoron and makes no sense in English in relation to flights.

Not to endorse that explanation of the cost of the flight, which is silly for a different reason, but the above is not correct. I know it sounds odd, but one can for example be riding a bus and tell the driver "I need to get off on First Street." This has the same meaning as "I need to get off AT First Street." It's perfectly good English.

[para.izée]

Oh dear... FandeAliFee's considerable talent and effort sometimes is wasted ON this tough crowd. Let's call on ST to give it a whirl.

[SlipshodDread]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

Not to endorse that explanation of the cost of the flight, which is silly for a different reason, but the above is not correct. I know it sounds odd, but one can for example be riding a bus and tell the driver "I need to get off on First Street." This has the same meaning as "I need to get off AT First Street." It's perfectly good English.

Perfectly good American English, I would fail my English A-Level if I wrote things like that. Although to be fair, I fail if I use "z" instead of "s" in words such as "Americanisation". They're a tough crowd to please the English examiners

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by SlipshodDread

Perfectly good American English, I would fail my English A-Level if I wrote things like that.

American English doesn't differ from British English in terms of grammar, only spelling and vocabulary. If your instructors are giving you a bad time for using "on" in that context, they're absurd. It's not an oxymoron at all; it's a shortened way of saying "I need to get off the bus on First Street." You're not getting off and on the same thing at the same time; you're getting off one thing and on another.

Although to be fair, I fail if I use "z" instead of "s" in words such as "Americanisation". They're a tough crowd to please the English examiners

Now that, on the other hand, is a real difference between the two dialects.

By the way, the reason why British and American English differ in spelling is because English spelling was not standardized by 1783. Spelling was standardized after American independence, in both countries, but -- independently. And so on this side of the pond we ended up spelling things differently than they did over there. Which means that in the English speaking world, we're the oddballs. Every other English speaking country remained part of the British Empire until after spelling was standardized and so uses British spelling.

[Edcognito]

I would post a whole long post about the appropriateness of anyone asking about "getting off" on Majorca, I decided not to, and just say "While I was in the Navy, I spent several very enjoyable weeks there during the 1980's..."

Ed