Could of should of would of

What would Shakespeare have thought? ajanela
The pedants of the day would have been lining up to complain about Shakespeare.
..."Shakespeare invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original."
Pretty positive for the English language in the long term, don't you think?
I notice spelling and grammatical errors and admit that I sometimes hoik my judgeypants, I welcome regional variations and new vocabulary and think the most important thing of all is to have something interesting to say!

Some things that seem to be bad grammar may be dialect derived from other languages many years ago.

My grammar may not be flawless and I wouldn't correct anyone's grammar or vocabulary in person, or online.

It does seem a shame that Gay is being publicly welcomed yet also restricted in that way, though.

This particular one is sad, as I know Gay loves a wee mince now and again.

Oh yes and lend and borrow. When someone says ' I borrowed you that' I am afraid I have to correct.

My pet hate is using your when it should blatantly be you're. E.g hope your OK. Argh!

Our Head teacher once sent a note to parents asking for ' White men's' shirts and old ladies' tights '

Yes, I agree too. Also 'learn' instead of 'teach' etc. I just love accents but hate bad grammer.

I completely agree with you in fact it's downright rude to criticise other people's command of the English language. Rather think whilst they were being so clever at English their manners were being sorely neglected

Local paper is dreadful for ambiguous and confusing article headings such as ' Elderly residents and staff at XXXX Care Home have been informed of the Inspector's decision'. Why are the care home employing elderly staff? And what about 'leather ladies' handbag'? Sounds like people with terrible skin.

The thing that annoys me and do it on the BBC is say "He went more fast." When they should use faster or fastest.
There are other similar word group like this where people use more instead of :
Happy, happier, happiest
Hungry, hungrier, hungriest
Slow, slower, slowest

But I wonder what would Shakespeare think of today's English.

He was shot in the arm whilst in Lover's Lane. It just annoys me that the BBC will not use 'whilst'

On the subject of creeping Americanisms as highlighted by Disgruntled above, the one that's really annoying me at the moment is on Radio Five Live, which has taken to telling us about the news headlines "this hour". OK, when you have various different time zones "this hour" is a useful umbrella term; but as that is not the case in the UK, just tell us the news headlines at that particular o'clock!

Not sure why that's so wrong, Tizliz. Even as a pedant, I can't get worked up about it!

Casawan, thank you for correcting me on my non-knowledge of the difference between proof-readers and copy editors!

"He was shot in Lover's Lane". Where in a body is this? Not once but often from the BBC

When customers asked me "Can I get a coffee?" I longed to say "Yes, you can get one in lots of shops" an then to wander away.

My mother often used to say "I was stood, standing there" or "I was sat sitting there" I think she got it from Al Read.

My English teacher when asked by a pupil 'Can I go the toilet please, Sir?'.....He replied ' Yes, I am sure you can, but no you may not.

How about "on the increase" instead of "increasing". It's used a lot in New Zealand newspapers. I hate it!

Also, my daughter, who ought to know better, insists on saying, "I seen" instead of "I saw". Oh, and she's not winding me up.

Many grammar issues make me cringe, especially the greengrocer's apostrophe - local taxi firm had large notice on outside wall - owner-driver's wanted. Yuck. But had lovely boss who couldn't understand that the word he kept using was "pendantic" instead of "pedantic"! - it was obviously a blind spot with him, but we used to tease him about it.

Oh, Daddima, I'm pinching that one!

Poor grammar drives me nuts (as opposed to nut's) as well, but I scroll quickly down such posts on Facebook as I don't think it's the place to correct grammar.

A lot of people on Facebook would start a fight in an empty room so there's not much point in adding fuel to the fire!

Oh how I LOVE this thread! Thank you, all, you've made my day. It's all music to my ears.
May I add two more to the list of creeping Americanisms: leash instead of lead and line instead of queue.

My pet hates are 'Can I get' instead of 'Please may I have'; replying 'I'm good' when asked 'How are you?'; 'secertery' instead of 'secretary'. I could go on, but now I'm getting worked up!

Gulligranny wrote: a generation of proof-readers who don't know what's right and what's wrong.
No, not the proof reader. It is the copy-editor's job to seek out and correct errors in grammar, syntax, continuity, etc., though the ultimate responsibility is always with the writer.

If I can't spell a word correctly I do not use it. We won't even go there with grammar...hahaha

I often think how odd it is that in the US ' transportation' has replaced 'transport', yet an invitation is unknown, it's always 'an invite'. Then I've also heard 'an admit' in place of an admission, a 'consult', a 'sell', and one, now popular in the UK that makes me cringe in horror, a 'big ask'!