"To be" or not "to be" - a question on dialects?

Question

Recently I overheard a woman say "my house needs painted." At first, I thought it was a simple slip up, but then she said "my car needs serviced."

Is she from some part of the country that routinely drops the "to be," or does she shun Shakespeare?

Answer 1

I think she has learnt English. I would assume it was "my house needs painting" or "my car needs servicing".

Personally I think it is a case of past, present and future tense being mixed up, rather than "to be" being dropped from the sentence.

I only say this because it was the tenses that I struggled with when learning Welsh and French.

Answer 2

I actually don't think that what this woman said was technically ungrammatical; it was just an increasingly-common abbreviation. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that languages change over time, and with them the standards for what constitutes proper usage. There was a time not long ago when the only correct response to "Who is it?" would have been "It is I"--but when did you last hear someone say that? (My personal pet peeve is the disappearance of the conditional tense, but c'est la vie.) Breathe a deep sigh, then move on...

Answer 3

She probably just learned English.
For example, in Spanish, there are many forms of the verb "to be". If used inncorrectly, it won't turn out how you want it to.
English is very hard to learn because of all the slang we have made up over time.
Good luck

ps. she doesn't shun Shakespeare
lol

Answer 4

Why bring Shakespeare into it? "What light through yonder window breaks" is not a typical example of how we speak today.
You should have said 'grammar'.

Answer 5

Now come on, you were temporarily deafened and missed the "to be", maybe she said it so fast you missed it.