Correctness of Grammar
I think the issue of correctness in grammar is an interesting one. It seems alien to me that "Henry brung his mother some flowers" could be grammatically correct, but perhaps this only shows my own personal bias. I think that this preferred usage of words has, and probably will continue to be an issue in language. It is also interesting to wonder where else in language this problem manifests itself. What other common "mistakes" are only grammatical snobbery?
posted by Anonymous @ 9:10 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
A common mistake is either:
She's taller than me. (It should be "I." The trick is that if you can add a verb at the end, such as "me am" and it's not correct, you don't have the right word there.)
Another common mistake is:
Me and her went to the store. Not only do you put the third person first, "me" isn't a subject.
I don't correct people in their speech about grammar; that's just plain annoying. But if I were a teacher and kept seeing grammar mistakes in a student's paper, I would correct them. There's a place for everything.
Many people rarely use "good" and "well" correctly. A person often responds to a question regarding his well-being with the answer "I'm good" when it should be "I am well". However, the meaning is conveyed through both ways and therefore the use of either word should be acceptable.
I can't think of a mistake that's only snobbery, but the first mix-up that comes to mind are the difficulties people have with "affect" vs. "effect". Like "I affected the outcome" vs. "My actions had an effect on the outcome". I've never found a hard-and-fast rule for the differences between these, though - I just picture them in the sentence and use the one that looks or feels right to me.
I mentioned this in another comment, but my example is the phrase "this is she." This is the correct way to say "that's me," but it sounds snobby.
Post a Comment
<< Home