Does "being harsh on someone" make sense?

Question

Since the meanings of the words harsh and hard are similar but not the same, does "harsh on" make sense?

For example:

Calm down you shouldn't be too harsh on him.

Seems fine to me. I would hazard a guess that hard is more common here but I might be wrong. — mdewey, Mar 11 '21 at 15:06
It does not. You are harsh with or harsh to someone, but not harsh on someone. — FeliniusRex - gone, Mar 11 '21 at 15:12
@FeliniusRex I have to disagree; it's perfectly fluent to say harsh on someone. For example, "You're trying to tell me I was too harsh on him?" and We feel it only fair that we be equally harsh on you — stangdon, Mar 11 '21 at 15:38
I agree with @stangdon. It is interesting to see how some people object to this usage, to which I wouldn't give a second thought. I also think the Ngram chart included in the accepted answer is flawed. This chart is more objective. — Eddie Kal, Mar 12 '21 at 00:41

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '21 at 15:10

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“Harsh on” may be acceptable, but “harsh to” is far more common.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Harsh+on%2C+harsh+to&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CHarsh%20on%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Charsh%20to%3B%2Cc0

answered Mar 11 '21 at 15:10

Jeff Morrow

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I think these can have different uses. One is harsh to a friend, but harsh on their children, for example. (In that case, it's more common to say one is hard on their children, but I think harsh works too.) – TypeIA Mar 11 '21 at 15:17
@TypeIA I did not say “harsh on” is ungrammatical; I said and provided evidence that it is quite rare. I am not sure we materially disagree. – Jeff Morrow Mar 11 '21 at 16:22
Indeed, that's why I upvoted! – TypeIA Mar 11 '21 at 18:13
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@TypeIA Ahh. Thank you. I misread the intent of your comment. – Jeff Morrow Mar 11 '21 at 19:08
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The Ngram chart is not a fair comparison because instances like "harsh to + Verb" such as "seems harsh to say" or "harsh to be", or collocations with nouns where "harsh on" wouldn't be used such as "sounds harsh to our ears" are a thumb on the scale for "harsh to". You need to include a pronoun in the comparison to make it a fair race. Check out this chart. – Eddie Kal Mar 12 '21 at 00:36

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '21 at 20:22

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I don't think anyone would look at you wrong if you said it, but using harsh instead of hard is probably more of a malapropism in most cases. That being said, because English is so fluid, "harsh on" could easily become more normal if it's used more.

answered Mar 11 '21 at 20:22

hakusaro

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It's not a malapropism, because harsh and hard are synonyms in this particular usage. However, the phrase "hard on" is an idiom with no sensible literal meaning. As such, changing it is understandable, but a bit weird. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot rod. :-) – jpaugh Mar 11 '21 at 23:53

Does "being harsh on someone" make sense?

2 Answers2