“It can easily become exploitative by profiting off the communities that are being targeted right now,” she told Reuters.
Can 'profiting off' be replaced with 'profiting off of'?
-
1Please consider trying to format your questions better. You can see some examples of how people have reformatted your questions here and here.– user230Oct 8, 2017 at 2:33
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
Just "profitting off" - without the of - is fine.
"Off of" expressions are common in colloquial AmE, although sometimes considered less correct.
A recent report in Vanity Fair is headlined:
Elizabeth Warren Eviscerates Equifax for Profiting “Off of Its Own Screw-Up”
Merriam-Webster defines "off of" as "off", and says:
The of is often criticized as superfluous, a comment that is irrelevant because off of is an idiom. It is much more common in speech than in edited writing and is more common in American English than in British.
Oxford considers "off of" to be "non-standard". It gives examples including:
‘I pinched this next bit off of a website somewhere’ ‘bullets were bouncing off of the shield’
‘She smiled brightly as she got off of her bicycle and skipped over and on to the porch.’
‘Being able to bounce my ideas off of other like-minded people was even more of a relief.’
‘Do not tear labels off of medication or cleaners.’
Oxford states that "off of" is "widely accepted in American English. Nevertheless, it is regarded as incorrect in standard modern British English."
