If someone mixes up “less” and “fewer”, I will say the correct one under my breath. It’s the only spoken grammatical error that really winds me up.
I don’t correct other people’s grammar. I used to be a know-it-all brat kid running around correcting people, and my parents told me I sounded like a stuck-up little snot. I had never realized, until it was pointed out to me, how arrogant it sounds to do that to people. Not everybody has, or even values, formal education. Later, when I got to college, I took an intro linguistics course and realized that all language serves a specific function and what we deem ‘‘correct’’ is actually rather arbitrary and class-biased. Personally, I can articulate myself in an enormous variety of ways, with many distinct registers. I love code-switching–what a beautiful, diverse, vibrant, fascinating, expressive language we’ve been blessed with. Why limit ourselves in how we use it?
I hate when people say things like “I’m thinking that …” instead of “I think that …” or “Are you wanting …” instead of “Do you want …” or “Was she saying …” instead of “Did she say …”
It makes people sound like illiterate rubes, but it is legion on this message board. Nevertheless, I bite my tongue. I am a saint.
You are surely referring here to the common practice of using the word “less” with count nouns. And what makes you think there’s something wrong with this? Some collection of self-appointed busybodies told you not to do it? If I told you never to use two consecutive three-syllable words, flashing my homemade Language Police badge at you for good measure, would you spend the rest of your life worrying about it and “correcting” others when you heard them doing so?
Incidentally, we know very well the history of this supposed “rule”, which makes it clear just how ridiculous its continued futile parroting is. I’ll repost what I’ve said before about it:
You have been taught, through presumably no fault of your own, an appallingly widespread but absolutely incorrect fact about the rules of English. Let me quote Merriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage (link to the relevant portion):
A lot of examples then follow to back up the assertion that “less” used with countables remains, as it always has been, a perfectly standard usage.
So, basically, what we have here is a feature of English that has been thoroughly ordinary for more than a millenium. About two hundred years ago, some guy came along and expressed his own idiosyncratic preferences, but this never really took on with the English speaking public at large, and thus never really became a true rule of English grammar, though it ended up being codified nonetheless in an awful lot of wrongheaded usage guides, the sort which rarely bother to take a glance at reality. (Another choice quote from the excerpt: “This approach is quite common in handbooks and schoolbooks; many pedagogues seem reluctant to share the often complicated facts about English with their students.”)
I’ve never corrected an adult’s grammar aloud. I’m always shocked when one of my very well educated coworkers asks, “Where’s the meeting at?”
A couple of posts made me think of my mom.
jali :“Can I go to the party tonight?”
Mom:“You can if you may.”
I finally use “may” instead of can when asking permission.
There’s nothing grammatically incorrect about “Where’s the meeting at?”
I think jali’s objecting to the redundancy of the at.
I would never correct anyone’s grammar, except my daughter’s. If someone corrected mine, I would kindly thank them and correct myself. Inside, I would be thinking ‘wow, that was classless.’
ETA: It just occurred to me that my daughter corrects my grammar more than I correct her’s. Little low-class brat.
In writing. I have an urge to, anyway. Depending on the situation I may or may not write a nice polite post pointing out that “her’s” does not need that apostrophe.
The problem with correcting grammar is there is no real right or wrong, at least in English.
English has no authority or organization (such as the French have) to oversee such things.
So grammar, spelling, and pronounciation come and go over the years. What is right today is wrong 25 years later. Usuage determains what is right or wrong in English, otherwise we’d be talking like in the “olden days”
The thing people forget is grammar, like ettiquette and good manners, are NEVER to be used as a weapon. They are used to establish clear communication so mix ups are avoided.
If the clerk got her message across clearly and with no misinterpretation than in reality there is no grammar error.
Since English has no governing body, usage is correct, not some arbitrary rule your teacher made up or adhered to 20 years ago.
(Even in French, there’s no compelling reason for people to allow the Academy any authority over the way they speak [and, indeed, they generally don’t].)
I know that sentiment has been expressed on this board before, but still, I have to say, I find that well said.
Now for a question. How do you feel about spelling? And pronounciations.
Many of my customers from the south (mostly black, but many white) say ‘comprooter’ or ‘compooter’ when they mean computer. Is that correct? Because, I certainly understand what they mean. I’m even used to it now, although at first it sounded crazy as hell to me.
I’ve said it many times here. Spelling is an arbitrary, artificial construct designed to put speech into a visible medium. There is only one right way to spell nuclear, even if the speaker says “nucular”. (Although with so many people spending so much of their time communicating with text these days, text is starting to take on the properties of speech, particularly in netspeak. It makes my head hurt sometimes.)
As above, it’s really no different from when someone says “nucular” instead of nuclear, or “fahr” instead of fire, or what have you. There’s nothing inherently wrong with accents; everyone puts their own spin on the pronunciation of a word. As long as it doesn’t impede communication, it’s all good.
Wow, man. I think you should consider yourself lucky that the cashier–who for all you know was a college professor or newspaper editor before the recession left him with a tedious, thankless job that forces him to interact with all types of unpleasant personalities for minimum wage salary–didn’t give you a humiliating, invective-filled tongue-lashing for your unsolicitied grammar lesson.
It’s much better to look like a “cretin” over a slipup this minor than to look like a pretentious snob.
I do it to my own students to tease them when they beg me for something, but that’s it. My own grammar has its share of mistakes.
My favorite is the ‘if I was’ vs 'if I were" past contrary to fact subjunctive one. I guess ‘if I had been’ is also ok, but not as much fun.
I correct only my adult sons. They’ve come to expect it and would be shocked and disappointed were I to stop.
If I do ever decide to correct another adult’s grammar, I think it might be over the excessive and incorrect use of ‘myself’, eg ‘please give it to Erin or myself’. So far, I’ve managed to swallow my replies and keep smiling. Just.
Whom.
Pronunciation doesn’t bother me in the slightest, as long as I can understand what’s being said.
Spelling for me is mostly the same thing - as long as I can make out what the person is trying to say, I am not too bothered. The one exception is when whatever I’m reading is intended to be funny. Tripping over misspellings usually messes up the joke for me, much like when stand-up comedians fumble over a word in the middle of a joke. That may be just a personal quirk of mine, though.
Heh, I’m the same way, only usually I’m the one telling the joke and making a typo. I consider the joke ruined when it happens too.
I once tried to correct an English major of this, as a joke. After telling me I was wrong, she actually made a point of telling me that I would have no friends if I went around correcting other people’s grammar. I to this day wish I’d had the guts to say “So it’s wrong for me to correct you, but it’s okay for you to correct me. Why would I want to be friends with a hypocritical English major who doesn’t know her own language?”