For some time now I’ve noticed people using the construction “it’s concerning,” used where I would say “it concerns me.” I don’t know why that should sound wrong, since it’s perfectly normal to say “it’s worrying,” “it’s alarming,” and so on, but “it’s concerning” is for some reason a new development and ipso facto, well, off-putting. Now I read in today’s paper about a local high school senior who’s a top-notch swimmer and has been getting lots of offers from colleges; having made up her mind to attend the University of New Hampshire, she said “It was relieving.” That was off-putting in the same way, and again, there’s no good reason why one shouldn’t be able to turn “it relieved me” into “it was relieving.” (A little research informed me that this too has been around for a while; Google turned up song lyrics like “And it was relieving when he walked away” and “It’s so relieving/ To know that you’re leaving as soon as you get paid.”) So I turn to the Varied Reader and ask: do these constructions sound normal to you? And if you find them new and a bit odd, as I do, can you think of other similar ones?
Isn’t this just a result of not wanting to state the subject? “It was concerning” avoids the messy business of who was concerned. Maybe it was just me, maybe it was me and my family, or maybe I wasn’t concerned at all but other people were. But I agree, these sound awkward to me.
Another option is nouning it: it’s a concern/worry/relief. That seems less odd to me.
“It’s concerning” sounds weird if I actually think about it, but I probably have said it without thinking. To me, “it’s concerning” means it both concerns me and has the potential to be a concern in general, while “it concerns me that” is only the former. “It is a concern that” is clunky and I probably wouldn’t say it.
However “it was relieving” sounds bizarre, especially when one could just say “it was a relief.”
I’ve heard “concerning” quite a bit — it seems to mean “slightly odd, unusual, and/or unfortunate” without any hint of actual concern for anything. Never heard “relieving” before.
I wouldn’t blink at “it’s concerning”, but I strongly reject “it’s relieving”. I think it might be because in my idiolect “relieve” in the relevant sense only appears in passive constructions — “I was relieved” but never *”It relieved me” — whereas “concern” can be used both ways: “I was concerned”, “It concerned me.”
“It was relieving” sounds much more odd to me than “it’s concerning,” which I don’t think I would have remarked on if I’d seen it in another context. I can’t think of a similar novel/borderline construction that I’ve heard – everything I can think of seems either entirely normal (“it’s surprising,” “it’s troubling”) or impossible (*”it’s overjoying”). That last one does get 47 results from a Google search, e.g. “I need to feel confident in myself, but it’s overjoying when you hear someone tell you that THEY have confidence in you as well.”
You can say “I have a concern”, but not “I have a relief,” so ‘concern’ and ‘relief’ aren’t entirely comparable. Whatever the difference is– maybe ‘concern’ is leaking into ‘relief”s semantic territory…
My problem with ‘concerning’ is that it’s also used (a bit stiffly and formally) as a preposition: ‘I’d like to speak to you concerning x’ means ‘on the subject of x’. It’s a bit confusing (see what I did there?) to use it as a participle.
My problem with ‘relieving’ with no object is that it sounds too much like a euphemism for ‘relieving him/her/my/your/oneself’, leaving out the reflexive object to disguise the (nonexistent) reference to bodily functions. A bit confusing in a different way.
leaving out the reflexive object to disguise the (nonexistent) reference to bodily functions.
“I relieved myself of this chore [by delegating it to X]”. I guess that derives from relieving the body of other things (“getting a load off”). Also there is “I have concerned myself with this matter for some time now”. This may be a bit high-flown, yet it still flies.
On the rare occasions I’ve come across “It was concerning”, it has definitely sounded like an Americanism to my BrE ears, though not actually bizarre. “It was relieving”, however, is definitely a WTFism.
“It is/was relieving to hear that …” sounds OK to me, though I probably wouldn’t say it myself. “It is/was relieving that … “, and “It is/was relieving [full stop]”, belong in Zythophile’s WTFism category.
Early 20s Midwesterner. All of the construction sound perfectly normal to me and I’m positive I’ve chosen them over other similar constructions, usually as responses.
“Was it relieving to finally pick a school? Yes, it was relieving (because of the stress, etc.)”
Like many others, I find “it’s concerning” normal but “it’s relieving” bizarre.
That last one does get 47 results from a Google search, e.g. “I need to feel confident in myself, but it’s overjoying when you hear someone tell you that THEY have confidence in you as well.”
Aha, that’s very interesting. It may be rare, but the very fact that it’s used at all tells me that this is a usage that’s spreading; I have no idea what line separated the verbs that could readily be used in that impersonal construction from those that couldn’t, but whatever it was, it appears to be breaking down.
I’m with Max: it’s part of a trend to remove actual people from statements, as if emotions can float free rather than residing in someone’s breast. “It’s troubling … blah, blah.” I associate it more with American English than British, but that just means it’ll be here soon enough.
There is a related trend here that’s particularly evident in sports commentating. Rather than saying that X bowled faster, you say that he bowled with more pace. In other words, concrete adjectives and adverbs get replaced by abstract nouns.
“It concerns me” I take to mean, “It is about me.” “Concerning” for “disconcerting” is more and more common, and it rankles whenever I hear it. To my ear, concern is neutral, but in this use it is always negative. But things change.
“My problem with ‘concerning’ is that it’s also used (a bit stiffly and formally) as a preposition: ‘I’d like to speak to you concerning x’ means ‘on the subject of x’.”
Michael, it’s being used as a verb with “x” as the object.
“It’s concerning” is an attempt to avoid reference to the experiencer, an attempt to evade responsibility for one’s own feelings and shove it off onto the stimulus. It’s the same construction as “That’s offensive” in place of “That offends me”. Obviously “offensive” is meaningless unless someone is actually offended. “Offensiveness’ is not some self-existing Platonic object.
I searched COCA and COHA, which between them cover AmE from 1810 to 2012. They report it’s concerning only from 2004 (other than in the sense ‘it’s about’, of course), but there is a hit for it was relieving from 1921, the novel Dust by E. Haldeman-Julius: “It was relieving to hurry across the dripping grass toward the barn.” I also find a hit for it’s concerning to me, which suggests that the construction is not always used impersonally: the person who has the concern can be restored obliquely.
With Google Ngrams, I can push the construction back to 1995, in Report On Business magazine:
There is also a 1993 hit in the novel Elvissey by Jack Womack. This, however, is set in the future (or possibly the future of an alternate past), and people do talk very oddly there:
Am I the only one to think “it concerns me” sounds wrong where “it’s concerning” sounds right?
Yes.
As an Australian English speaker from Melbourne, “it is/was concerning (to me)” is commonly used here, but “it/was overjoying” is never used. Of course we are talking about the concerning=worrying meaning not the concerning=about meaning. How come so many commenters don’t get this? Is the concerning=worrying meaning not universal in all varieties of English?
As a naive non-linguist, the difference (between concerning and overjoying) seems to have something to do with whether the verb is ever used
in a transitive way e.g. “it concerns/worries/alarms/depresses/saddens/gladdens/pleases me” are O.K and consequently so are “it is concerning/worrying/alarming/depressing/saddening/gladdening/pleasing”. However “it overjoys me” is never used (rather “it makes me overjoyed”), hence neither is “it is overjoying” used.
“It is relieving” seems to be more of a line ball. I can (just) imagine saying “it relieves me to hear that” (although I would be more likely to say “it makes me relieved to hear that”). Hence, I can (just) imagine saying “it is relieving to hear that”.
Marja Erwin,
No.
Instead of an attempt to take people out of the equation, I find “it’s concerning, etc” to be broadening the people involved. “It concerns me that…” is personal; “it’s concerning” says it’s not just me who is concerned, but everyone (or at least a group).
Concerning the suggestions of dearieme and Jim that some of these locutions represent an evasion of responsibility — I am sympathetic, but I am also aware that it’s too easy to make this kind of criticism. People who get on soapboxes about passive verbs often find passive verbs very useful without thinking about it (and without using them to avoid responsibility). I find this use of “concerning” a tiny bit off-putting because it is a tiny bit unfamiliar; I find the use of “relieving” more off-putting because it is more unfamiliar; I find the corresponding use of “worrisome” not off-putting at all because it is familiar. And when someone calls something worrisome I ordinarily take it for granted that they are openly making a statement about their own feelings, or thoughts — not trying to bamboozle the reader with a phony Thing Out There.
Definitely sounds new and very awkward to me. I expect there’s some analogy to ‘disconcerting’ going on.
To my (admittedly L2) ear, “it’s concerning” and “it’s relieving” sound perfectly normal. I’m not sure I would have flagged “it’s overjoying” as unusual without being primed for such a judgement, either.
When I first started hearing “it’s concerning,” I thought it sounded wrong. To my ear, it still does. I am particularly annoyed that TV reporters often use the phrase to reference something that somebody somewhere thinks is somehow questionable. My response to this usage is, “Who the heck is concerned?” Of course, I’m 75 years of age so for many people, I’m “concerning,” as in “Who cares what the old guy thinks.”
Concerning used as a synonym for worry sounds wrong because it is wrong. Concerning is a preposition that means: relating to: regarding.
In other words, “I don’t use it, so it’s wrong.”
Do you want fact for opinion? Because I was being polite by keeping my opinion out of my comment.
The fact is concerning does not mean concerned. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
@michael m: are you stating that the verb concern has no present participle, hence no progressive tense forms?
Nobody uses “it’s concerning” to mean “it’s concerned”. It’s being used as short for “it’s concerning me and presumably others”.
Concern is a verb with somewhat weird syntax. For example, the gerund noun form of “concerning” does not seem to exist.
Peevery 2: The Concerning.
@michael m:
The OED’s sense 3 of concerning (adj.) is “That gives cause for concern; troubling, vexing”. It has four quotes, the first from Pamela:
1740 S. Richardson Pamela II. 159 I cannot bear any thing that is the least concerning to you.
1890 F. A. Randle Imgar (ed. 2) iv. 18 They soon became rather numerous and very concerning, pelting the Hindoos with pebbles and rolling large rocks down ahead obstruently.
1987 Daily Tel. 19 Feb. 40/6 It is concerning that an MP and a Minister could suggest that you actually have to be a member of Parliament in order to have an opinion.
2012 Independent 20 July 16/2 Although only one complaint was ever upheld, the details of the alleged offences..are nonetheless concerning.
I suspect michael m will not allow his mind to be changed by the facts, but thanks for doing that research!
Disconcerning itself is a malapropism for disconcerting, lately becoming established.
Wow, thanks for the
warningnotification! I don’t think I’ve seen that one.The first time I saw “disconcerning,” it took me quite a while to figure out what was going on.
[I’m typing this on my phone, and every word after “figure” was correctly supplied by auto-correct.]
Yes, I’ve developed a pathetic reliance on auto-correct when typing on my phone.
I solve this problem by only talking on my phone.
So you are hoping that voice recognition is usable by the time your next phone is also your next PC?
As a professional, I don’t think I have to worry about that within my personal MTBF. I have yet to see any programmer dictating code, even to a fellow human bean. If I go blind (a not entirely unreasonable possibility for a diabetic), it’ll be a different story.
Depending on type and size of code — three lines of bash is doable and you can do a lot in three lines of bash as long as domain-specific executables are installed. But you do need visual feedback, there are too many ambiguities in the way I read out code at least. Dealing with a screen reader and having to spell out stuff would severely cramp my style.
But point taken, even if the prevailing exigencies force us to keep fingers on keyboards for the next 15 years, teaching APL to Swiftkey will be a challenge for our heirs.
“Master Foo and the Ten Thousand Lines” (师傅万万线)
“Do you want fact for opinion? Because I was being polite by keeping my opinion out of my comment.”
This comment shouts “opinion” from the tops of the mountains. And the alleged politeness is more dogmatic than polite.
quakers say ‘i have a concern (for x)’ meaning ‘i am moved by the holy spirit to do something (about x)’,, anything from going to see the elephant in the avram davidson story to founding the afsc, greenpeace, oxfam, etc.
Thank you – this has been bothering me since I first heard this construction 15 years ago.
I dealt the other day with a service which insisted on my providing a cell number. I did so with great reluctance — normally, only family members have that number, and everyone else can call the landline phone, to be answered at my convenience, not theirs. After a while I received a text message to which I laboriously (see above) pecked out a reply with one finger. Instantly I received an automated counter-reply directing me to go to a certain URL and use that instead.
With great joy, I carried the phone to my computer, typed in the URL (with nine fingers), typed my reply into the displayed form (with nine fingers), clicked on “Submit” and all was joyous. After that I did not even read the texts from the service, but simply used the “Amazing Grace March” that my phone plays when it receives a text as a signal to refresh the same web page.
Of course, this kind of expression is the bane of English learners.
It interests me — It’s interesting — I’m interested
It amazes me — It’s amazing — I’m amazed
It fascinates me — It’s fascinating — I’m fascinated
It intrigues me — It’s intriguing — I’m intrigued
It heartens me — It’s heartening — I’m heartened
It encourages me — It’s encouraging — I’m encouraged
It baffles me — It’s baffling — I’m baffled
It tires me — It’s tiring — I’m tired
It exhausts me — It’s exhausting — I’m exhausted
It exasperates me — It’s exasperating — I’m exasperated
It repels me — It’s repelling (or repellant) — I’m repelled
It revolts me — It’s revolting — I’m revolted
It disgusts me — It’s disgusting — I’m disgusted
It bores me — It’s boring — I’m bored
It appals me — It’s appalling — I’m appalled
It distracts me — It’s distracting — I’m distracted
It distresses me — It’s distressing — I’m distressed
It devastates me — It’s devastating — I’m devastated
It saddens me — It’s saddening — I’m saddened
It confuses me — It’s confusing — I’m confused
It deflates me — It’s deflating — I’m deflated
It disappoints me — It’s disappointing — I’m disappointed
It galls me — It’s galling — I’m galled
It frustrates me — It’s frustrating — I’m frustrated
It riles me — It’s riling — I’m riled
It puts me off — It’s off-putting — I’m put off
It challenges me — It’s challenging — I’m challenged
And now
It concerns me — It’s concerning — I’m concerned
It relieves me — It’s relieving — I’m relieved
As yet no:
It irks me — It’s irking — I’m irked
It delights me — It’s delighting — I’m delighted
It conflicts me — It’s conflicting — I’m conflicted
It puts me out — It’s out-putting — I’m put out
@Bathrobe: Actually, irking and delighting seem fine to me. They are just in the same boat with repelling, uncommon because there are the more common synonyms irksome and delightful.
> are you stating that the verb concern has no present participle
> Nobody uses “it’s concerning” to mean “it’s concerned”. It’s being used as short for “it’s concerning me and presumably others”.
Of course “concerning” is the present participle of “concern”, but it’s usually not used in the present progressive like that. Traditionally, it’s “it concerns me”, not “it’s concerning me” (although my understanding is that the use of the progressive is… ehm… progressing, “I’m loving it” etc). So it seems that to allow “it’s concerning” (without an object), you have to either
1. Allow “concerning” as an adjective OR
2. Allow the present progressive AND intransitive use for the verb “concern”.
“Concerning” already appears as an adjective in the dictionaries I have available. My guess is that it used to be uncommon, but is becoming more popular due to analogy with those other -ing adjectives.
I think they are mixing it up with “Disconcerting.” I’ve also heard people say “Disconcerning.” I just now saw a Congressman Eric Swalwell (D) of California use “concerning” in this incorrect way.
I hear “all intensive purposes.” “Deep Seeded.”
I think that we should be saying “It’s disconcerting” rather than “It’s concerning to me.”
No, that’s different; something that’s disconcerting sets you on your heels, throws you a bit off balance, while something that’s concerning worries you.