[pianotech] OT: Grammar

[John Formsma]

Agreed with both of you.

When Terry said that he feels the English language is deteriorating
rapidly, I thought of one thing. Well, two things really. The first is the
incorrect use of "feel." Should be "I believe" or "I think" rather than "I
feel." OK, that out of the way.... ;-)

The second thing is this. I think the English language is borderline
psychotic. I'm trying to teach my two younger sons how to spell. English
spelling just doesn't make much sense, and it's impossible to spell well
unless one has a really good memory. We have spelling "rules" that are
always broken and don't apply equally in every case. Here is just one
frustrating example below. (I posted this recently to my Twitter
account.) Talk about homonyms. Ugh!

I rode on the road; the hero rowed. Knowing the owing & sewing, we were
going. Dear, we see the deer here. They're there w/ their fawns.

I could go on and talk about why we sew. But when we hew trees, it isn't
said like hoe. Crazy stuff like that. I can see why my kids get so
frustrated. I mean, we have goose and geese, but not moose and meese. Mouse
and mice, but not house and hice. We can have steer and steers, but not
deer and deers. Doesn't make a lick of sense.

OK. Bak to the reel wirld.... ;-)



On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 10:11 AM, paul bruesch <paul at bruesch.net> wrote:

> Terry, We could sit and pick nits all day!!  e.g.
> "She went to the store with Jim and I."
> "Please talk to Bob or myself for more information."
> "Definitely" this or that. (Tech support/billing support)
> "Absolutely." (Radio/TV interviews)
> (The last two aren't incorrect, just abusively overused.)
>
> My kids (19 and 16) are both enabled with quite good grammar skills, but
> when they talk to their friends they sometimes lapse into the casual "I
> seen" construct.
>
> I do know that schools do still teach grammar. The friend I mentioned at
> the beginning of my original post is a Kindergarten teacher who teaches
> non-native-English-speaking kids... she has to attend a three-day grammar
> conference this month. She has to teach about nouns, verbs, adjectives,
> paragraphs. Yes, to non-native-English-speaking kindergarten kids. I
> suppose the future preservation of English grammar may be in the hands of
> such kids.
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 9:48 AM, Terry Beckingham <t46xd8jb at xplornet.com>wrote:
>
>> Since you brought it up...
>>
>> Two of my pet peeves are:
>>
>> People who say "I seen" when they should have said "I have seen" or "I
>> saw"
>>
>> Many people now say "Me and him" when they should have said "He and I".
>>
>> Do schools no longer teach grammar??? I feel that the English language is
>> deteriorating rapidly.
>>
>> Terry Beckingham
>> (just nit picking)
>>
>>
>> At 09:35 AM 12/4/2012 -0600, you wrote:
>>
>>> I've just been musing with a friend about grammar when I made a rather
>>> humorous (to me, anyhow) discovery...
>>>
>>


-- 
John Formsma, RPT
Blue Mountain, MS
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