mad at you/on you

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allthewayanime

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Which is the correct preposition?

I am mad/pissed/etc. at or on you.
 

cereal_chick

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P****ed is a swear word, while not considered as rude as some others, you shouldn't say that here.

And it would be "mad at you". Mad on you is nonsense.

[Not a teacher]
 

BobK

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In fact, 'mad on you' is not nonsense. It just has a totally different (+ve) sense.

b

PS And I'm not sure I'd call 'p*ssed a 'swear word', although it's certainly a vulgar one - best avoided, if only because it's seriously ambiguous. 'He is p*ssed' means 'He is angry' in Am Eng, and 'He is drunk' in Br Eng. The commonness of Am E speech on TV/film/video is making the American sense more common even over here, so that there is no longer a clear distinction between the two - more scope for ambiguity.
 
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Rover_KE

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'...madly in love with you.'

Also 'mad about you' means the same.

Rover
 

emsr2d2

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"Mad with you" means the same as "mad at you".

There is another BrE vs AmE difference here. 5jj explained the difference with "p*ssed", but "mad" has two different meanings. In AmE it means "angry" and in BrE it means "crazy". The American usage of "mad" is certainly used in the UK but to someone who doesn't know that meaning, "I'm mad at you" would make no sense because they would hear "I'm crazy at you".
 

BobK

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"Mad with you" means the same as "mad at you".

There is another BrE vs AmE difference here. 5jj explained the difference with "p*ssed", but "mad" has two different meanings. In AmE it means "angry" and in BrE it means "crazy". The American usage of "mad" is certainly used in the UK but to someone who doesn't know that meaning, "I'm mad at you" would make no sense because they would hear "I'm crazy at you".

That's so, but we can usually work out what it means from the context - particularly in idioms; even speakers of Br Eng know sports coaches who say 'Don't get mad get even'.

b
 
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