Phrasal verb "put off"

[Bassim]

I have tried to use "put off" in my sentence. Would you please correct my mistakes?

Gina loved her boyfriend, but it put her off whenever she saw him eating with his fingers instead of using cutlery.

 

[bhaisahab]

It's OK.

 

[Phaedrus]

In this context, I'd change "put her off" to "turned her off." Another option here is "grossed her out."

 

[Phaedrus]

'... turned ... off' is, in my opinion, more informal/modern than 'put ... off'.

It is also, in my opinion, more precise in this context.

I (71) do not use 'gross ... out' though I understand it. My offspring (41 and 37) use 'gross ... out' in informal conversation, but would not use it in, for example, a job interview. My great nephew (20) uses 'gross ... out' as readily as I use 'deter' or 'discourage'.

If I'd thought Bassim wished to speak with the utmost formality and linguistic decorum, my suggestions would have been entirely different. Bassim wants to use a phrasal verb, does he not?

 

[Phaedrus]

Rover_KE liked this post

Phaedrus dislikes that post.

 

[jutfrank]

For me, the use of put off feels a little incomplete. It put her off what? Off him? Or off eating?

 

[Barb_D]

Based on my initial reaction and the replies, I am suspecting that this is more British than American.

We don't have a more formal version of this, really. I would have said "turned off" as well.

 

[bhaisahab]

Phaedrus dislikes that post.

bhaisahab dislikes this post.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd use "turned her off" with no object but "put her off" with an object.

Seeing him eat really turned her off.
Seeing him eat really put her off her food.

 

[Bassim]

emsr2d2,
Would my sentence be OK if I write it like this?

Gina loved her boyfriend, but it put her off him whenever she saw him eating with his fingers.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hmmm, yes and no! If she loves him, it should take a little more than that to "put her off him". As I said before, I would expect it to put her off something like her own food.

 

[Phaedrus]

bhaisahab dislikes this post.

Rightly so. I apologize for making it, especially to Piscean. I had felt subtly ridiculed by his post, and that feeling was intensified by the likes it received. Now I see that it was not necessarily Piscean's intention to ridicule my informal but very natural AmE suggestions. Even if it was, however, I ought to have been able to take it without having my native-AmE-speaking, 40-year-old feathers ruffled.