I wanted to point out a couple of things that I constantly hear, from people who should know better. Without getting too technical and invoking a lot of grammar jargon like predicate and participial I’ll just briefly mention a few things I hear most often.
He/Him, She/Her
What I hear is “Him and I talked…” or “Me and her met…” I hear it at work, on television (you’d think the writers of the shows would know better, wouldn’t you?) This does you no credit, because you’re bound to end up working for someone who knows better and will cringe everytime you say something like that.
The word “and” is a signal that both halves of that conversation are the subject. Here’s what you can try: Remove the “and” along with either the first or second party, and what do you have? “Him talked…” or “Me met,” or “Her met.” I know no one would say those things, but for some reason when they’re together, people can’t see it. Simply put, whichever pronoun you use in front of and after the “and” has to be able to stand on its own, as if the second one wasn’t there.
Correct: “He and I talked” or “She and I met”
The Death of the Infinitive “To Be”
Another trend I’ve noticed over the last several years is that of dropping the verb “to be,” as in “I need briefed,” or “He needed taught.” It makes it sound as if “briefed” and “taught” somehow became nouns, things you could pick up at the grocery store. This is not just slang people use in informal conversation with friends, I hear this from degreed professionals in the office. How did this happen? Where did this start? The first time I heard it was from a guest speaker at a convention who uttered the first example phrase, “I need briefed.” I’ve been scratching my head over it ever since, and that was probably 20 years ago, and the usage seems to be picking up steam over time. It’s such a tiny little verb, maybe that’s why it gets overlooked? It may be trendy, but it sounds, and is, wrong.
Than/Then
Now this one I see in print All.The.Time. Most often I see then used when it should be than. ‘Than’ is comparative, as in “Steve is taller than John,” or “Marcy’s cookies were better than Sue’s.”
‘Then’ is used in time situations. “If he arrives on time, then we’ll go to the movie,” which specifies “That is when” the event will occur. Maybe the ‘e’ in ‘when’ and ‘then’ can work as a little mnemonic?
Went/Gone
Wrong: Had went.
Right: Had gone.
Go-Went-Gone. I go. I went. I had gone.
There are more I could get into but if you have questions, here’s a great site which can help with a quick question, and minimal, but effective, explanations: Common Errors in English Usage.
I know I make grammatical errors from time to time. But at least, I try not to. Whereas, a lot of people just don’t seem to care today. There’s a difference between human error and plain laziness. Example: when people posting online don’t bother with any capitalization or punctuation. Or, when they write entirely in acronyms. When I want to solve cryptograms, I’ll open up my Variety Crossword Puzzle Book.
Heh
Yes, grammarians and netiquette mavens have been bemoaning the death of language skills since the advent of e-mail. People right away started treating all electronic communication like an informal chat with a close friend, forgetting that very often those work communiques were directed to higher-ups in the company who would not be impressed with the casual nature. It’s one thing when e-mailing friends, but the informal use of the acronyms and internet shorthand (BTW, FWIW, AFAIK, etc.) have no place in the workplace. Not to mention lack of proper formatting.
We ALL make grammar and spelling errors, I think it’s impossible not to at some point or other, at least for most of us mortals. But the bad spoken grammar I hear at work all day from my managers, really highly-positioned, is appalling. I actually hear things like “Her and me agreed…” Hand to god, I am not making this up. The man is in his 60s now, I’m not going to bother correcting him, I’m just going to hope he decides to retire soon
“Her and me?” That’s funny in a frightening sort of way.
The simplest way I was taught regarding things like, “He and I…” versus “He and me went to the store.” was to see if you could separate them into two sentences. “He went to the store.” But you wouldn’t say, “Me went to the store.” So the correct sentence must be, “He and I went to the store.”
Exactly. Apparently no one ever told him about that.
p.s. I can picture you praying for his retirement. *giggles*
Oh you have no idea! I’ve considered voodoo dolls, blood sacrifices… at this point nothing is out of bounds!
He insists he’s never going to retire (I think he and his wife don’t really enjoy too much time together).
Have you guys seen this problem with misused prepositions? I expect that from non-native English speakers; preps are among the last, most difficult things to remember and nail correctly in any language, but in the last couple of years a lot of my plain vanilla American-born English speakers are coming up with such constructions as “the students were distracted of their goal” (instead of “FROM their goal”- that one’s almost a direct quote from an otherwise decent paper I read today,) or “these distractions held them back to what they hoped to achieve” (again, TO instead of FROM.) All I can figure is that they don’t read enough to see truly complicated sentences in action, and when they have to put one together, the fine points are sometimes lost or misplaced.
And don’t even get me started on this nationwide disregard for the apostrophe!!!!! (or shd i say dont)
You know, I couldn’t say for sure if I have or not, but if not those exact issues then certainly very similar ones. I’m going to start writing them down more often. Most of the time it’s like nails on a chalkboard though, and I tune it out rather than react to it. I can still remember Mrs. Stumpf in 8th grade pounding into us “‘different FROM’, not ‘different THAN’!” Her example was “My dress is more different from her dress than your dress is different from her dress.” Wouldn’t she be proud that I remembered all these years?
Of course, the Brits say “different to” which blows the whole thing out of the water.
My peeve is weak writers who say “Syrdal is different,” and end the statement there, without completing the comparison.
Really, different from what? From a peanut? The sound of a waterfall? I guess it’s assumed we can finish the thought ourselves, understanding the meaning.
That’s my beef, exactly. I tell my students that even if I COULD finish the thought myself, why would they want that? Thus I make a point of evaluating them only on what I can see between the 4 corners of the page.
[Although some day we should write an experimental prose poem in which we explain how everything is different from the implied peanut
]
Now, I could see using that in dialog, without expanding it because that IS the way people will talk. But if it’s in exposition, no.
I love the “implied peanut” poem idea!
BTW – did you choose the type font for this page, or is it just the default that came with the domain? I like it: it’s both elegant AND easy to read.
It’s the default with this theme, I don’t know if it can be changed. But I purposely chose this one because I like serif fonts. When I was taking some graphic design classes we were told serif fonts are easier to read, and I have to agree.
“I can still remember Mrs. Stumpf in 8th grade pounding into us “‘different FROM’, not ‘different THAN’!”
*Gypsy shamefully hides her face behind a very large book*
*and decides to try to remember this*
LOL, almost no one says “different FROM” anymore, I feel like a dinosaur even bothering with it.