Good Grammar... please come back

[INQUISITOR63]

Is it I ( Not is it Me !)....or ........... are there any other people out there ......who hate/s bad grammar ? ------{ perhaps that should be.... "is there ....people" ( sing noun )...but it doesnt sound right.}
it is so prevalent these days especially on the telly. Even news readers say "I was SAT there, or I was STOOD there instead of, what we were all taught at school , i.e. "seated" and "Standing". The BBC announcers are no exception to this either. --- what a dreadful inheritance this is from what was always regarded as the pillar of English excellence.
Perhaps its because so many interfering govt education departments have seen in their wisdom to eradicate all proper grammar from school curricula over so many years. Also when we were greeted with "how are you?" we always said "fine thank you ". where /when did this Americanism crawl in from ? -- " Im good !" Surely this latter was meant to signify how excellent you were at something ......... but certainly not Grammar , it seems .

[MarkRae]

> The standards at school are appalling

Those six words synopsise this entire thread perfectly.

[tiggerblue10]

We live in a diverse society and some people can master punctuation / grammer and others find it more difficult. And maybe there are varying degrees of dyslexia which could affect punctuation / grammer.

We can't all be perfect.

[stewey]

Some of the responses here bring to my mind a quote by Mr. Pope: "Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."

[jake-the-peg]

I'm always amazed at the number of people who think there is such a thing as correct English.

Surprisingly it always seems to be the English that they were taught at school!

[mike11111]

I agree. It is amazing the number of people who misspell words like weird and height because they slavishly recall 'i before e, except after c' without remembering the rest of the rule (if they were ever taught it).

[jake-the-peg]

Who wrote "the rule"?

[mike11111]

Nobody 'wrote' it. It's just a fact that i comes before e except after c when the resulting sound is the diphthong 'ee'. There is only one exception, 'seize', which is of French origin, a corruption of 'saise'.

[NazNomad]

Weird ...

[NazNomad]

It must be due to the lack of protein in his diet?

[MarkRae]

Society is to blame...

[mike11111]

Weird is not a diphthong, it is two syllables, wee-urd. Height is not pronounced heet.

[MarkRae]

Either that, or he's just being feisty...

[NazNomad]

Weird is only one syllable, unless you're unfortunate enough to come from Norfolk.

[mike11111]

Society and diet are not diphthongs with the 'ee' sound either, nor was protein originally. Before anyone picks me up on' either', the 'ei' do not come after any letter, so the rule does not apply.

[mike11111]

I have never heard 'weird' pronounced 'weerd'. there is a hint of a second syllable, nor is 'feisty' pronounced 'feesty'.

[NazNomad]

"I have never heard 'weird' pronounced 'weerd'"

Nobody's perfect, Mike.

[MarkRae]

> Before anyone picks me up on' either', the 'ei' do not come after any letter, so the rule does not apply.

Of course it does! The rule is 'except after c', not 'except after c or at the beginning of the word'... :-)

I have a feeling that there may be some gentle ribbing in the last few posts, Mike... :-)

[tiggerblue10]

According to my English tutor (over 20 years ago) English is one of the hardest written languages to learn.

[MarkRae]

He's right, sort of.

'Basic English' is a vastly cut-down version of English which contains only 850 words. At that level, English is one of the easiest languages to learn because e.g. we have no genders of nouns, no informal and formal and, save for a handful, our verbs are generally speaking extremely regular to the extent that you can get by just using the infinitive root. E.g.

Yesterday he no go school
Today he no go school
Tomorrow he no go school

All incorrect, but all comprehensible nonetheless. There are very few languages where things are as easy as that.

HOWEVER, although basic English is one of the easiest languages to learn, English itself is one of the hardest languages to master, especially for non-native speakers...