Learn English – Difference between get “off of” and “off”

I can’t speak to overseas or Canadian usage, but think there is no hard-and-fast rule in US usage. There is a tendency—and it’s no more than that—to reserve the two-place prepositions off of, down from, out of, and those with to for directional contexts, much like into, while the one-place versions are preferred in locational contexts. I, at least, tend to speak of a motion being taken off of the table; if am subsequently asked about its status, I am more likely to say “Oh, it’s off the table now.” However, other two-place prepositions are more likely to be locational: down in, up on (not the same as upon!), over at.

The two-place prepositions sometimes have an intensive sense. I tell my son “Get off your butt”; when I come back twenty minutes later and he’s still watching TV, I say more sharply “Get offa your butt!” In heated dispute I am more likely to say “Get offa your damn high horse!” than just “Get off your high horse.” But I suspect these are occasioned by prosodic rather than semantic considerations.