“Would you like any more coffee?” you ask.
“I’m good,” is the response. And no one blinks an eye.? Adjectives and adverbs are becoming interchangeable.? Or maybe indistinguishable.
“You promised to be here by noon and it’s now after two.” you say.
“My bad,” is the response. And no one shivers at the sinful syntax.
What has happened to the English language?? Although there have been changes over the centuries, they were evolutionary rather than revolutionary.? That is no longer so.? Google is now listed as a verb in that last bastion of language traditionalism, the Oxford English Dictionary.? Mind you, I am not saying that is wrong.? Brand names often become the generic term in common usage, such as Kleenex and Scotch tape, but it is rather rare to have that happen in the OED and never so quickly.? It is a sign of the times, although not a bad thing.? It is the rapidly progressing decay of proper English that appalls me.? It is not so much an evolving of, or even radical revolution in, the rules, but a total disregard for them.?? “Rules?? We don’ need no stinkin’ rules!”
If you have read any of my writings, you will know that there are times when I will use a sentence fragment, often in dialog.? Why?? Because we all do it in everyday speech.? In the same way, having a character answer a question with, “It is I” rather than the incorrect, “It’s me” would sound ridiculous.? I use the same chatty tone in my newspaper column and this blog as well.? Yet, I choose to do this to maintain a certain voice.? Know the rules before you break them.? Sadly, fewer people know the rules that they break on a habitual basis.
Texting has been no friend of correct spelling.? Knowing when “i” is before “e” is fast becoming an arcane ability.? In fact, my retired-school-teacher sister was told by one of her principals not to teach spelling at all because it was not on the standardized California tests, which were all that mattered to the school’s rating.? Yes, there is spell check, but will it know whether you meant to write there, their, or they’re?? Or, for that matter, whether or weather, write or wright?
When we come to examples like my first two, it gets worse.? “Me and him are going to the store.”? I cringe when I hear someone say that.? “It be cool.”? Ouch!? “I don’t got nothing.”? Yuck.? I could go on, but I’ve made my point.? I’m not saying that I’ve never made a mistake.? I am aware of two typos and a grammatical error in the printed version of Christmas Cracker (which I did correct in the Kindle version), but they bother me greatly.? If we could imbue the youth with a grammatical and syntactical? conscience then there might be hope.? I hate to say it, but I do not see much chance of that.
Maybe I should join the crowd,? Down with the tyranny of grammer and spelling rules!? Guy Fawkes lives! ?Texters of the world unite!? You have nothing to lose but your ability to spell and write a complete sentence!
ZUP DUDE? WUTEVR NE1 RELY KEWL SEZ IS GR8
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