Ésta es una de esas preguntas que te vienen rondando tiempo y que no te atreves a plantear porque son del tipo de preguntas que pueden estar muy manidas y se supone tienen una respuesta clara. Como Blasita me ha dado vía libre y además información adicional (no tienes parangón, chica, gracias), voy a plantear una de ellas en este café.
Which of these expressions should you use: is one of them less acceptable than the others?
Do you ever get bored with eating out all the time?
Delegates were bored by the lectures.
He grew bored of his day job.
The first two constructions, bored with and bored by, are the standard ones. The third, bored of, is more recent than the other two and it’s become extremely common. In fact, the Oxford English Corpus contains almost twice as many instances of bored of than bored by. It represents a perfectly logical development of the language, and was probably formed on the pattern of expressions such as tired of or weary of. Nevertheless, some people dislike it and it’s not fully accepted in standard English. It’s best to avoid using it in formal writing.
Esto de arriba es lo que dice el Oxford Dictionary. Me pregunto si bored of no es realmente «standard English» y si entonces es mejor evitarlo en el lenguaje formal escrito. También si no hay preferencia en el uso de bored with y bored by: por ejemplo en lo que le siga (un sustantivo, gerundio, etc.).
En castellano podemos usar con y de y por eso me decantaría por with y of, como traducciones típicas de las preposiciones with y of.
¡Gracias de antemano!
Hi Monic,
Beware! After a quote from the Oxford dictionary, my opinions are obviously to be taken with a pinch of salt and I have no type of authority whatsoever to classify something as standard or otherwise.
The best I can do is tell you how I use these prepositions with bored:
Although to be bored by is a passive construction, I would opt for it when I want to emphasise the action, as opposed to just the state – a bit like The door is opened (by someone) vs The door is open.
As regards the other two, I can’t be absolutely sure but I think I generally favour of, whether it is followed by a noun, a pronoun, a gerund or whatever.
Sorry I can’t help more.
Hi, Nibbles.
You’ve helped me a lot! Thank you very much!
🙂
Hello.
In general, I think these are quite often interchangeable. That being said I’ll add the following and hope I don’t really confuse the issue.
I would say the sentences in this order of personal preference:
1.
Do you ever get bored of eating out all the time?
Do you ever get bored with eating out all the time?
Do you ever get bored eating out all the time?
Do you ever get bored by eating out all the time? (I like this option the least.)
2.
(The) Delegates were bored by the lectures.
Here I agree with nibbles to a great extent. I would add that I see this as a specific reaction to the specific speeches.
(The) Delegates were bored with/of the lectures.
I interpret this more generally. It is hard to explain… The delegates wanted action, not just talk!
3.
He grew bored of/with his day job.
I would not use: He grew bored by his day job. (It just does not sound right to my ear.)
Thank you for the examples, Gerardo! Examples are very useful to learn the difficult prepositions.
Saludos cordiales