Or being a baby rapist. And fat.
I believe you meant to say, “Up to what have you been?”
This is (usually) a double offense. “Realtor” (with a cap R) is a trademark of the National Association of Realtors, and only its members who have achieved that certification may use it. Everybody else is just a “real estate agent.”
Learning the rules of the language as way to perfect your usage is done in many other cultures, though, and so far it hasn’t led to our complete demise. But in one thing I agree with you: getting assistance from native speakers who aren’t familiar with the rules of their own language is a bitch. Getting as a teacher someone who doesn’t know the rules (s)he’s supposed to teach, but who will grade you against them (tests prepared by other people) is a whole pack of bitches.
This is one of those hoary old saws directed by the unwittingly aggressively ignorant against descriptivism.
Descriptivism doesn’t do away entirely with standards. Instead, it sets up some very simple standards:
- Does your audience understand the concept that you mean the audience to understand?
- Does your audience appreciate the aesthetic traits of your language you intend for them to appreciate?
- Does your audience have to work no harder at understanding your intended concept or aesthetic than you intend for them to work?
If you can answer “yes” to all three questions, your communication is successful. Everything else is subordinate to these goals.
I’ve never seen a prescriptivist explain why things like the split infinitive rule, or proper use of the subjunctive in English, or pronunciation of the “r” in “February,” ought to take precedence over these goals.
Pronouncing the first r in February makes it easier for many foreigners to understand what’s being said, but then, y’all also manage to mute ts…
On a somewhat related note, I’d like to add that no matter how many times the tourism commercials say it, I cannot “shop the stores” or “stay the night”.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, get back to me when you stop lisping your c’s ;).
Actually, your example fits well within the descriptivist guidelines. If your audience includes non-native speakers who learned English from written sources, then you’ll do well to pronounce the /r/ in February. However, in this rare situation, there may be another guideline:
- Will your audience develop familiarity with a version of your language language to the extent that you intend it?
This is a rare goal–it also applies to me in my role as a teacher–but when it comes up, it may contradict the other goals to some degree. For example, if I pronounce the /r/ in February, my foreign audience may understand me better, at the cost of misunderstanding how English is typically pronounced. I have to choose which goal is more important (or, more likely, just not consider the issue at all).
What’s wrong with “I looked him right in the eye?”
Since Spanish has no c phoneme, I can’t lisp it. If I lisped, I’d be lisping my ss.
If you can’t look yourself in the mirror, how can you look yourself in the eye?
If I order dos thervethas in Spain, I’ll be understood, but those of us who learn Spanish from written sources think that’s bizarre. If you tell me you’ll visit me in Febyouary, you’ll be understood, but those of you who learn English from written sources think that’s bizarre. Same thing.
In any case, of all the weird English spelling things to complain about, surely the missing /r/ in February is the least of your concerns? Don’t you want to start with the obnoxious “gh”? How easy do y’all find it to learn night, drought, draught, laugh, through, though, thought, and others I’m undoubtedly forgetting?
Seconded. Having had object-subject pounded into my head with three different languages, when I hear “Mary and me went to the mall”, it’s like hearing fingernails scrape down a blackboard.
I’d have gone with the lack of capitalization (twice), but that’s just me. I always take the easy way out.
That doesn’t sound right and I’m sure you would get a puzzled response if you actually used it.
“To up what have you been?” works much better and the person you’re conversing with will understand immediately.
I beg to differ:
Where did you learn English? I’ve never heard of the nominative referred to as the subjective.
It’s worse than that. The National Association of Realtors expects everyone to capitalize the whole word: REALTOR. That’s why I tell them to go fuck themselves and call them estate agents.
Unfortunately, it ignores the most important standard, which is: “[d]oes your audience want to stab you in the throat with a fork?”
Well, it’s less jarring than ya’ll. 
It’s pretty common to refer to the subjective, objective, and possessive cases in English, rather than nominative, accusative/dative, and genitive.
That would solve the “realator” problem. Oh, sorry, the “REALATOR!!!1!!” problem.
I suppose those are a bit less needlessly confusing.
Yes, because English just doesn’t have all of the inflections or the syntactic acrobatics that make such terminology necessary.