The Degradation of Proper English

Jump to Latest
#42
Ben Mah said:
"Give me" and "Give my friend" become "Give my friend and I" instead of "Give my friend and me". For many people, It's always "I" as soon as there is a second person.
Click to expand...
This has become a real problem with education system in the US now and I'm sorry to hear it has spread to Canada as well.

I'm curious whether it exists in Great Britian as well and maybe someone from there can comment on it.
 
#50
GeoffMillar said:
Among many peeves, I hate nouns which have been turned into verbs: someone didn't win a medal at the Olympics, they "medalled"; someone "summitted" Mount Everest, etc ad nauseum.

Grammar hasn't been taught in schools here for many years: the only way students pick it up is by learning a foreign language.

Geoff
Click to expand...
As a non-native english speaker, I actually found english to be rather 'rubbery': verbs and nouns seem to be very easily interchangeable. Kate Bush: "Twixt the day." (eg). Or, I'm off the edge actually...
 
#51
You guys are crazy. Or mad. Or mad crazy. 😉

My father taught me to read articles in the NY Times and then compare to other newspapers. The example I remember to this day: the Times always refers to a person as "Mr." or "Mrs." or other title. Not by the last name only.

Can we all agree that there are differences between the rules for spoken and written language?
 
  • Like
Reactions: huggygood
#53
My humble thought regarding this subject = > [see what I did]
Why get too 'hung-up' on general text so long as "Proper English" can be learned & used, which it always will be.
I still like to use a space before a question mark to indicate a 'larger general question'. Is that so bad ?
 
#59
Whether/weather, they're/their, have/of, then/than, too/to, buy/by, ask/aks (really?), womans/women. Mostly done correctly by non native speakers I think. Reading such errors give the impression that society is dumbing down. If you don't master the basic principles of your own language how can I then take you seriously?

An irritation is that some native speakers (that practically never know any other language) expect you to speak their language in all its finesses which is impossible. This often combined with the assumption you have the same cultural habits (like oversensitivity to certain words/phrases or just absurd policor) which thankfully simply is not the case. It is easy to "catch someone" on words in a debate when that person is not a native speaker. English is an extra language to non native speakers, not a self chosen hobby.

And the vocal fry ... please keep that one and don't export it 🙂 If women/girls start to sound like starting bulldozers all the possible attraction melts in a second.
 
Last edited:
#60
Yes the vocal fry is just horrible.I especially hate how it has contaminated how some young people sing.Quite often on shows like the Voice you hear young singers singing in that style.Seemingly oblivious to it being a nasty affectation.It started with singers like Brittany Spears as a way of masking the fact she is a poor singer and then became an acceptable or "cool" way of singing.I guess that squelchy sort of sound also goes hand in hand with processed and compressed vocals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom