One of the biggest surprises of my life came when I started getting email from old high school buddies. (We all graduated in the ‘60’s.)When I saw some of the spelling and grammar I was floored. I still don’t see how some of them got through HS.
This is all egotism. These people don’t cringe they revel they get to feel superior. Meanwhile they’ve forgotten the point of language is to communicate, if people hear what you said and understand it the way you intended you said it right enough. Language evolves, suck it up.
I know, right?
Commentators who use less and fewer interchangeably elicit my disdain. “Less voters turned out for the election”, is cause to wonder if the voters were cut off at the knees or the waist.
Good article.
As someone who does freelance copyediting work on the side, I sees terribel grammer and speling all the time.
Here, here!
“Mr. Garner... requires all job applicants—including people who just want to pack boxes—to pass spelling and grammar tests before he will hire them.”
Someone incapable of mastering spelling and grammar might nevertheless be an asset to the shipping department.
What a bad manager. (No verb; it’s implied and grammatically acceptable for emphasis.)
How about “CAN I help you?” (Hell, I don’t know if you can) vs. “MAY I help you?”.
Or, when I call my buddy’s office, his [minority hire] secretary responds with “May I axe who’s calling?”. The first time she said it I responded “No, you may not, but I’ll tell you my name”.
And, of course, an issue may have one criterION, or many criterIA.
I could go on for hours.
Me and my wife see this all the time.
Thank you for posting this. As a former copy editor, I cringe when I hear the younger generation speak and read much of what they write. Apparently, English is no longer taught in our schools.
Is you disrepecting me?
Should of, would of, could of.
These gffes are ubiquitous on TV these days. Brian Kilmeade said “him and me” this morning on Fox.
I wonder how someone can get through school and still make a mistake like that?
On the other hand, our Spanish is improving.
Informality? Try stupidity.
Blame the MSM mostly.
They deliberately say ‘I’ when they should say ‘me’ just to trigger that fingernails-on-blackboard quivering of the spine.
Grammatical capital offenses:
1. Subject/verb disagreement.
2. Nominative/objective case confusion.
3. Improper use of reflexive pronouns.
4. Casual use of passive voice.
Misdemeanors:
1. Malapropisms
2. Dangling prepositions
3. Abuse of the present progressive (”the reason being IS ...”)
4. Participial paroxysms (”I could OF helped ...” “He should OF been there ...”)
5. Incorrect future subjunctive (”If he WAS ...” instead of “If he WERE ...”)
6. Dropped infinitives (”This shirt needs washed” instead of “This shirt needs TO BE washed” or “This shirt needs washing”)
7. Poorly latinized plurals (”Media” is a plural noun; “the media ARE biased churls” not “The media IS a biased churl”)
There are more ...
I work in a corporate environment. I am amazed at the lack of communication skills among the people I interact with daily.
Mainly, it is people under the age of 40.
I suppose it is true. There is no school like the Old School.
Mr. Silver also hammers interns to stop peppering sentences with “like.” For years, he imposed a 25-cent fine on new hires for each offense. “I am losing the battle,” he says.”
You’re the one who hired them. So “like” it.