It’s a huge mystery to me. Apparently, multiplications and divisions are also done differently from how I learned them (still suck at math on both continents, however).
I will be dead right next to you on that hill.
Another one that used to drive me crazy was American interchangeability of “bring” and “take”. I might have made myself deaf on that, or maybe not since I just brought it up.
Well, language is living and changing, but that doesn’t mean that grammar and generally accepted rules don’t apply (even accounting principles are caveated as “generally accepted”, but there would be mayhem if people just did what they wanted, and we are about to find out what happens when we have judges but what they rule doesn’t match what someone wants to do).
I learned several languages first by absorption and later formally, and there is grammar and sentence structure and all the rest that applies to all (most?) languages around the world.
Then there are dialects and colloquialisms and slang and all the rest. But it doesn’t change that the underlying language has a structure and format.
You can make up whatever version you like, but you run the risk of not being understood. And isn’t that the point of language, that others understand you?
We also tend to use since and because as synonymous, but at least from my time in a big Swiss firm, it seemed the Swiss, Germans, Italians only used since with regard to time.
Re take, bring, I think the only time I see that is in the context of someone taking something along with them to another destination.
Ex, in “I need to remember to take my insurance card with me to the equipment rental” (which I think is right), I might hear people equally saying take or bring.
One of my favorite scenes from Twelve Angry Men is where one of the juror complains “He don’t even speak good English!” and another juror, a proud new immigrant citizen, gently corrects him, in heavily accented English.
yes, since vs as
(i “misuse” some things even though they do register)
Mostly, but not always. There are dozens of examples of slang, dialects, and other variations of a language expressly used to designate between those within a group and those outside of it.
I mean, I know my little friends and I made up our own slang, mostly just because it made our parents absolutely crazy. British slang from the gay community in the 50’s and 60’s, Polari, was used so they could talk among themselves without being subject to prosecution. Some words, like “zhuzh” even crossed into the mainstream.
I think it’s important to at least be aware of the basic rules in order to play with a language, i.e. make up words, or alternate spellings.
My parents were both terrible snobs about their perceived superior education and knowledge, and judged everyone else for their lacking.
Imagine growing up with that
Right, which is still in the service making yourself understood, albeit to a select group. It’s a sub-language, not an “incorrect” language.
How about: “The fact of the matter is….”?
Or, something a guy at work used to say: “The thing of it is….”
“In my humble opinion…”
Eff you! You wouldn’t know humble if it hit you in the face!
Youngster!!
Veni, vidi, vici😆
Et tu, Brute?
wordsmithradio.org
Chrysti the Wordsmith
At this point in time …
Woah; took me a minute to figure out that I wasn’t actually at a hockey game!