Certainly correct about the "me and Bob" fallacy. And at the very least, it's polite to name others before yourself. However, how long has "thru" been a US English word? I've never seen it used in any even slightly formal writing. I'm pretty sure you'll still get a swift kick in the balls for using "thru" in any English speaking country.
The one that gets me is when people say "to be honest". Why because you normally lie? It's amazing hope topics can literally migrate across forums. We had the "I could care less" one on the LOTRO forum a few weeks ago. My personal favorite language based gripe is centered around the overly used term 'jokes' after ever poorly written Facebook status that my niece posts. Example: "you like my jiggling? Errr no! You guys are jealous of my jiggling! Haha, that adverts jokes."
I was always taught it should be "He gave Bob and myself a ride home." I guess different locales teach different things. My biggest issue is the use of the word "retard". It seems to have become a "cool" word, when all I can ever associate it with is ignorance to it's meaning.
The problem when trying to define correct and incorrect usage of words and grammar is that both are constantly changing, where do you draw the line and say "This defines what is correct" because victorian english is very different from medieval english. Furthermore there have always been differing forms of english for different social situations, for example I would say things differently if I were talking to a friend compared to if I were talking to his father. When I was in school no-one even tried to teach me formal grammar or for that matter punctuation, I had to learn it myself. I'm constantly getting into arguments with people my age and younger who say that spelling and grammar aren't important so-long as you're understood, and attitude which drives me up the wall. I'm not sure I've ever knowingly seen an americal writer write through or put a U in colour. Moriquendi
I would have said "Bob and me." Regardless, while my memory might be a bit fuzzy (my last grammar course was in 2005), I still fail to understand how "I" can be used as an indirect object. He gave it to whom? He gave it to me. If you were the one driving, it would be correct to say "I gave myself a ride home." Back on topic: "all intensive purposes" misuse of "an" or "and" as in "If you have any questions, send me and email." EDIT: Same here. I do it because I've always read more British literature than American, so words like "favourite" and "recognise" make me feel happy.
That's another good one. It's "all intents and purposes" One that really bugs the crap out of me is when people say "try and" "I'm going to try and overclock my computer" No. You're going to try to overclock your computer.
It only comes about when referring to a specified someone other than yourself along with yourself, so: Bob gave it to me, Bob gave it to us, Bob gave it to Jim and I. But not: Bob gave it to me and Jim. or Bob gave it to Jim and me. Another one that irritates me is incorrect use of a and an. Is it really that hard to remember that if the word following begins with a consonant you use "a" and if it begins with a vowel you use "an"? To me it sounds like a vuvuzela in the middle of a string quartet. Moriquendi
I'm not too bad when I want to write something.. but talking- I'll break every rule in teh book and write like that in forum posts think the american slaughter of english comes from growing up and seeing a british guy say things like- do you want a spot of tea? the other portly guys says- but of course! then your parents look at you with the all knowing eye like.. do you really want to be like that you should see the first generation fobs- but english is their second language.. to get in gate as an esl student they have a puppet show where the cookie monster pops out of the trash.. all the 3rd graders who yell 'cookie monster!' are put into gate.. the rich kids have to score over 130 on a iq test to get in well something like that anyway
Thru isn't the US English spelling of through. In American English, thru is considered a informal variant spelling, but the word is still correctly spelled (or should I say spelt ) through, just as it is in England.
Oh dear, trollmode is about to activate... Americans get blamed for the slaughter of written English, but it's the British who are unable to properly speak the language! Please, someone explain what "summat?" means.
I despise people who butcher the English language. (Americans and stupid teenagers of my generation who don't know their 'there' from their 'their') Using 'of' instead of 'have' is one that really grates on me! "I really should of shot myself in the head for being such an idiot" makes NO sense what so ever (it even pains me to write it). Then there is the usual 'there', 'their' and 'they're'; 'your' and 'you're' etc. etc. People using 'are' instead of 'our' and 'then' instead of 'than' also **** me off something chronic. I didn't even do well in any English exams at school (which surely shows that English lessons don't teach you a thing about the English language) and yet I'm still at a higher level than most. "I never know where the apostrophe goes so I just hover it in roughly the right place" THEN LEARN YOU STUPID IDIOT! Last bit; Americanisms. If you are talking about your maternal parent then it is your 'mum' not your 'mom'. You're rear end is your 'arse' not your 'ass' (unless you have a donkey stuck up there). We also use the letter 'u' and rarely use the letter 'z'. Learn those two and come back to me. People who say that it is just progression of the English language don't realise that it is quite the opposite of that. It is just laziness and stupidity. It isn't progressing in the way things should progress. Progression, for me, indicates that things move on and get better, it doesn't mean that things move backwards due to accommodating thick, lazy arseholes! /rant. Any spelling or grammar errors in the above script were deliberate! Ninja: I could go on forever!
Actually, it's your mother. Both are informal nicknames, somewhat like "mama". Also, your use of apostrophes to simulate quotation marks disturbs me. EDIT: To be extra semantic, if no evolution is to be allowed in language then we should all stop speaking English in the first place, as it would have never come to be.
Whilst I would agree that evolution is needed for any language you have to keep in mind that there is a clear distinction between a language evolving and mutating. Innit. (flaps hand wildly in the air attempting to get his fingers to slap together) Booyah, or some other such nonsense.
Dude, to do the hand thing, hold the tip of your thumb and tip of your middle finger (on the same hand) together, and let your index finger go floppy when you shake your hand, so it hits your middle finger.
