Words in the wrong context

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Once when I was in high school, the French class two of my compadres was taking introduced the subjunctive. They got into an argument over whether or not there's a subjunctive in English.[/geeks]

I wish I were knowledgable about the subjunctive mood.

[DanaC]

Latinate vocabulary, yes; latinate grammar no, despite the dominies' try at making us never end sentences a preposition with, up with which we don't now put.

Oh I realise that Latinate grammar is not successfully applied to English, but the fact remains much of what is considered 'correct' grammar is an attempt to crowbar the language into an alien grammatical framework. This didn't happen during the Dark Ages, it happened later during a resurgence in popularity for Latin studies. This applies most particularly to written English.

In England, Standard English is effectively the bastard son of the dominant Old English dialect and incoming Norman French. It is the dialect of the wealthiest and most fertile areas of Britain. Other dialects, many so varied as to be sister languages, rather than mere variations, didn't hold the same currency and when language became more formalised, were relegated to incorrect forms.

Sleeping through elementary-school grammar isn't how to do well in life.

No, UG, it isn't the way to do well in language classes. I have known successful people whose command of grammar would make you wince. I have likewise known people whose understanding of grammar bordered on the obsessive and for whom life was somehow very difficult.

An understanding of grammar is a good skill to have. The English language is so vast and complex that to be absolute in that understanding would require years of careful study. Not everybody chooses to know how the engine of their car works. As long as it carries them where they need to go and there are people willing to train as mechanics, why should they?

If you can make yourself understood, then you are achieving what you set out to achieve when you use the tool of language.

[HungLikeJesus]

And on a somewhat related note:
Who came up with the spelling of choose, chose, lose, loose?

Choose rhymes with lose (at least in American English). Chose rhymes with hose. Loose rhymes with caboose. No wonder people have trouble learning English.

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

And on a somewhat related note:
Who came up with the spelling of choose, chose, lose, loose?

Choose rhymes with lose (at least in American English). Chose rhymes with hose. Loose rhymes with caboose. No wonder people have trouble learning English.

You can add "loos" to the list. It's British slang for "toilets".

Pronunciations change but spellings are fossilized. Blood, flood. Great, steak, break. Vein, grey, they. There are ten or so different ways of pronouncing "ough". All these groups of words have changed their pronunciation but retained their archaic spellings.

English spelling is the linguistic equivalent of what you get when you don't cut the grass and prune the roses for a long time.

[Cicero]

For some reason I think "try and" sounds less bossy than "try to". I use both.


Maybe it all isn't about the level of literacy, and more about personal preferences like that one.

Except for SteveDallas's example of "done my homework". Now that's just odd. Maybe that's a west coast thing.

[SteveDallas]

Except that we live in Philadelphia!

[classicman]

"All the sudden" what?

[classicman]

I talk to a lot of people everyday and I'll just post them as I hear them.

[jinx]

"The car needs washed."
Seems to be a central PA thing.

[Kingswood]

Originally Posted by jinx

"The car needs washed."
Seems to be a central PA thing.

It's also a fairly standard construction in Scottish English.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

It's also a fairly standard construction in Scottish English.

bollocks


as for aks/ask ... you'd be a marked target if you said ask in some areas of Detroit -it's not just an ignorant mispronunciation -it's dialect.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by jinx

"The car needs washed."
Seems to be a central PA thing.

I heard this sort of locution in the Navy all the time. Everywhere the Navy was.

I chalk it up to "elliptical construction."

[HungLikeJesus]

And then there's this spelling of fish:
ghoti

[HungLikeJesus]

The story behind "ghoti."

[Stress Puppy]

Actually, in the area of PA I grew up in, you didn't wash a car, you warshed it. With whuter. Don't forget to check yer oal while yer at it.