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If I were walking around in public with my shirt on inside out, and I bumped into a friend in a store, I would want them to point out my wardrobe error so I could go into the rest room and fix the problem.
If I make a stupid grammatical error, I also would want my friend to point that out to me, rather than just letting me go on making a fool of myself. Why are those two situations so different? I've noticed that people get angry if you point out their grammatical blunders. Why is that?
I've given this a lot of thought. Here in the US, our educational system is on the rocks and taking on water. I see high school principals on tv using speech that makes them sound like someone who dropped out of school before the fifth grade.
I've always believed that bad things happen because people let them happen. People pilfer things at work, cheat on their taxes, lie to their partners, spout all kinds of racist filth...and no one seems to say to them...that's wrong what you are doing.
Allowing our educational system to disintegrate is not just a concern for parents of school-age children, it's a matter of civic responsibility. Let's start right now with a defense of the English language. If someone makes a stupid grammatical error, point it out to them. If they get angry, then you have found out that they are a jackass besides being ignorant, that's all good. Things like that are good to know.
I think we should pay schoolteachers at least twice what most of them earn now, and doctors half of what they earn now. We need to look at what is important in life. And we should ease up on testing of students and start testing teachers. If a schoolteacher can't pass a test of English at the eighth grade level, they should be suspended until they do remedial study on their own that equips them with a basic knowledge of English. Otherwise, things will just keep getting worse and worse.
Here's a beginning lesson for those of you out there who can't write English without making errors...totally free of charge. The word I is used when it is the subject of the sentence, the word Me is used when it is the object of a verb or preposition. They are not simply interchangeable.
Stop using the word I whenever it follows the conjunction and...as in "between you and I" and "Kate invited Gwen and I to the party." Both of those are wrong, it should be "between you and me" and "Kate invited Gwen and me to the party." This is something you should have learned by the sixth grade. If you speak like an illiterate person, you are making a fool out of yourself, so this is my gift to all of you...totally free.
If I make a stupid grammatical error, I also would want my friend to point that out to me, rather than just letting me go on making a fool of myself. Why are those two situations so different? I've noticed that people get angry if you point out their grammatical blunders. Why is that?
I've given this a lot of thought. Here in the US, our educational system is on the rocks and taking on water. I see high school principals on tv using speech that makes them sound like someone who dropped out of school before the fifth grade.
I've always believed that bad things happen because people let them happen. People pilfer things at work, cheat on their taxes, lie to their partners, spout all kinds of racist filth...and no one seems to say to them...that's wrong what you are doing.
Allowing our educational system to disintegrate is not just a concern for parents of school-age children, it's a matter of civic responsibility. Let's start right now with a defense of the English language. If someone makes a stupid grammatical error, point it out to them. If they get angry, then you have found out that they are a jackass besides being ignorant, that's all good. Things like that are good to know.
I think we should pay schoolteachers at least twice what most of them earn now, and doctors half of what they earn now. We need to look at what is important in life. And we should ease up on testing of students and start testing teachers. If a schoolteacher can't pass a test of English at the eighth grade level, they should be suspended until they do remedial study on their own that equips them with a basic knowledge of English. Otherwise, things will just keep getting worse and worse.
Here's a beginning lesson for those of you out there who can't write English without making errors...totally free of charge. The word I is used when it is the subject of the sentence, the word Me is used when it is the object of a verb or preposition. They are not simply interchangeable.
Stop using the word I whenever it follows the conjunction and...as in "between you and I" and "Kate invited Gwen and I to the party." Both of those are wrong, it should be "between you and me" and "Kate invited Gwen and me to the party." This is something you should have learned by the sixth grade. If you speak like an illiterate person, you are making a fool out of yourself, so this is my gift to all of you...totally free.
Replies
Yep, you\'re right. It\'s you and me! Not I! I remember my English classes well! I actually wanted to teach for lifetime job. Somehow I ended up chaning goals in midstream and landed in the medical field! I\'m happy about that. I loved my jobs!! But I do remember a lot of my \"English\" rules....for example, I remember this. \"EACH, EVERY,EITHER, NEITHER, A PERSON, AND COMPOUND WORDS USING \"BODY\" AND \"ONE\" ARE SINGLULAR AND TAKE SINULAR PRONOUNS\"! There! Hows that for remembering a rule with my CFIDS brain!! LOL
I\'m proud of myself for being able to be grammatically correct, but with this silly illness, I never know when I\'m gonna mess up! So I would surely appreciate it if someone told me when I was making bad errors in my speech.
So thanks for the totally free lesson. I\'m sure that \"you and I\" understand the meaning of the importance of good grammer!!!
Huggums!
I love this Richie and I agree with all your post, my mother in law always corrected me and I was always very grateful. My english is bad because as you said, being ignorant comes from lack of education.
I always admired intelligent people***** and you are one of them.
Hugs to you Richie and so glad you are feeling better today.
I welcome corrections when I make mistakes. It can feel a little irritating to be corrected, but so what? Being polite to people when you feel a bit irritated is part of being a grownup. Attacking people who correct you when you are wrong is childish.
For those of us who live in countries where English is the primary language, it is our language to cherish or to trash. It is not the responsibility of professors in ivy-covered buildings, it\'s up to each and every one of us. Love it or let it go down the drain, you decide.
Here\'s another tip. The word \"none\" has no number, that is to say it is neither singular nor is it plural. So those editors who insist that writers use the phrase \"none was\" in place of \"none were\" are dead wrong. This is an editing error that crept into things decades ago with the result that you rarely hear the phrase \"none were found\" anymore.
If you were writing about a lab test that found no evidence of bacterial contamination, it would be better to say about the bacteria that \"none were found\" rather than saying \"none was found\". Bacteria are not found singly when doing routine lab work, they exist in colonies. The former phrase would simply be better usage in this context even though both are technically correct. The latter phrase is just silly.
I don\'t think that rule is correct, Darla. Everybody and everyone are plural, not singular. I can tell you with certainty that many of the textbooks being used in the schools these days are riddled with errors. I saw an investigative report on tv about this. This could be the source of many of the ubiquitous errors creeping into English usage.
The reporters contacted the supposed authors of some of these school textbooks and found that they had no idea their names were in any way connected with the textbooks they supposedly authored.
Did you know that the US \"won\" the Korean War by using nuclear weapons against the North Koreans? This \"fact\" was taught to millions of school children all across the US.
The reality is that nobody \"won\" the Korean War, it is just in a state of truce. The only time in world history when nuclear weapons were used against anyone happened during the final days of World War II when two nuclear bombs were used by the US in Japan.
History is always being rewritten. Politicians who say the US \"won\" the Cold War are lying. They know very well that the Soviet Union collapsed because of massive debt overload and a disintegration of morale in the Soviet military. It serves their political purposes to credit US saber-rattling with \"winning\" the Cold War.
I used to be really good at English at school, about all I WAS good at and worked as a journalist for years. These are such good points and something that I have been seriously wondering about as sometimes, on the news and all over the place grammatical errors are happening - and now I cant decide whether this is a gradual change in language that happens ANYWAY over centuries, or not? I have problems with one of my granddaughters who comes out with the most dreadful grammatical mistakes, though in fact is doing very well in her English at school. I am with her on Facebook, as with my other granddaughters, keeping an eye on them (they dont mind!!).....and I do blanch at some of the things they and there friends say grammatically and think texting has a lot to answer for. So I really dont know what my feelings are about this now, at all...!!! hugs Richie and others....XXXXXX
I used to buy the argument that the English language is just changing or growing and that\'s why the grammar is shifting. I no longer accept that, absolutely not. What is happening with the loss of grammatical structure is decay, not change. There is a big difference.
When a language shrinks in its ability to express thoughts and ideas clearly, that is not growth. Without grammatical structure, language descends into confusion. People are constantly misunderstanding one another online in their exchanges. Grammar is there to help us be clear in what we are saying, these are not rules for the sake of rules.
I think Darla was right about her rule for compound words ending in -body and -one. I was wrong, everybody is singular. You say everybody is coming to the party, not everybody are coming. It\'s been a really long time since I learned these rules, so I am no expert on English grammar.