Hi everyone, and welcome to Phase 2 of my peculiarly ad hoc grammar and punctuation tutorial.
The original intention was to try to offer useful tid-bits of grammatical quirkery, mis-types and blunders and to offer solutions to the mix-ups. My good friend Old Codger raised an interesting point:
Our language and its correct application is in a state of flux. What was unacceptable yesterday is frequently acceptable today. Things we were taught at school have sometimes been overtaken, as errors have been universally adopted and have become the new "truth". Part of the solution to maintaining standards is to know that while it may be acceptable to describe a product as "awesome" on your website, it will never be an acceptable word in your job application letter.
The reason these pages exist is that while everyone will accept, and possibly applaud high standards, not everyone will accept lower standards. Here's an unusual but feasible example: you are looking on the Internet for legal advice. You come across two attractive websites and start to read...
Site 1. "Pothecary and Partners are renowned for offering proffesional free advise. Ring for an appointment.
Site 2. The Stanley Partnership offers excellent, free advice and will only charge once we have agreed a way forward with you, our client.
Did you spot the biggest turn off? Many people would click away from site #1 because of two spelling mistakes in one line. How professional is a business which can't spell "professional" and doesn't know the difference between "advise" and "advice"? Which company would you use?
Right then - on to the meat and potatoes...
Top Helpers in This Lesson
Not that mine is perfect, but I must have had VERY GOOD TEACHERS as I was painfully and deliberately acquiring English as my second language...I would never have had the guts to put anything up as training but I find it hilarious and can only commend you, Paul.I feel like I have found a soul mate griping about the same thing. I hope you have given a tutorial on my pet hate: the misuse of the words to lay and to lie. My patients always tell me they were laying down...their life, perhaps? And working in Ashton-under - Lyne near Manchester one of my patients proceeded to tell me: "I were just eating me tea, when..."
Coming from South Africa I never thought that i would need an interpreter for English, but there I did!
ReplyWhen ever I hear the word "sat" on telly I shout the word "sitting!" My wife just sighs.
I'll try to do "me" and "I" tomorrow, along with the correction to "me and him went out".
1) It's not 'Lay Lady Lay', it's 'Lie Lady Lie';
2) It's not 'Lay Down, Sally', it's 'Lie Down, Sally'; and
3) It's not 'I Feel Good!', but 'I Feel Well'.
I may not have used the proper punctuation above, but this discussion is about grammar, right? :-)
