Gransnet forums

Pedants' corner

"Save our children from the grammar tribe"

(9 Posts)
Lilygran Fri 23-Aug-13 16:28:03

Yes, indeedy, feetle. Drives me mad when all the props and costumes are as authentic as they can make them and THEN someone says, 'See you later' or something similar.

Lilygran Fri 23-Aug-13 16:24:48

I think it's helpful to know what the 'rules' are. For one thing, it makes learning another language a bit easier. For another, it makes it easier to communicate with people whose 'standard' isn't the same as yours. They subtitle some British films in the USA! The French and Italians and Germans don't have any hang-ups over teaching a standardised form of the language for formal use.

feetlebaum Fri 23-Aug-13 16:21:51

Of course English has evolved; try reading Anglo-Saxon if you don't believe it!

But it shouldn't be driven by ignorance... 'bored of' is barbaric - but 'tired of' isn't. AS for 'Must of', 'should of' and the like - to the Tower with them!

And could someone in the business let the scribblers of 'Marple' scripts know that English speakers of the 1950s talked of the 'railway station', and not the damned 'train station'?

thatbags Fri 23-Aug-13 15:23:48

Indeed we do (says she of several gransnet metamorphoses hmm ) and that article is refreshing to read.

finocchio Fri 23-Aug-13 15:19:34

Does it matter, as long as the written/spoken words are understood. That's surely the important thing. All standard english does is give insight into someone's education.
Yes, language evolves, as do we all.

annodomini Fri 23-Aug-13 14:39:09

Thank goodness for someone who is prepared to acknowledge that language is not static. English is a particularly progressive language, having lost many of the inflexions that haunt students of other languages.

Charleygirl Fri 23-Aug-13 14:25:30

That was an excellent article. I was educated in Scotland in the 1950's and a lot of emphasis was placed on grammar and spelling and I think that I benefited greatly. I do not know what happens nowadays.

I also think a lot depends on how one's parents spoke.

Mishap Fri 23-Aug-13 14:14:22

This is an interesting article. "Iwas sat/stood" really grates on me, but it is used more often than "sitting/standing" now - or so it seems when I listen to radio or TV. So maybe that is what the language is developing towards, so children should not be penalised for this as it is what they hear around them all the time. Ditto with "bored of" - it makes me gasp, but it is now common parlance.

Language does develop; and those things which made teachers very cross (which is why we gasp! - we are waiting for the ruler to fall!) when we were small are now the language of news readers and politicians and many people in the media.

boot Fri 23-Aug-13 12:32:28

Teaching standard English is important but who decides what is right and when to mark down children's writing? Article by Tom Chivers.