RIP prepositions?

I cringe every time a politician says they "took the decision". You don't take a decision, you make one!

polnan

I have forgotten any "grammar" I was taught at school, but this thread strikes a chord with me! is that grammatically correct..
what really bugs me is,,, me and her.... I was taught to always put the other person first.... when did it change?

all this is said with a smile, as language evolves, so I understand

Sometime in the late 1980s to mid-1990s, judging from the children I have taught in the three last decades of my teaching life, who had never been taught that it is polite to mention yourself last in these kind of sentences.

The reason they did not know it was that their parents had not be taught it either.

They thought it very odd when I insisted on "Jane and I were playing" in preference to "me and Jane were playing" on two grounds the one being politeness, they just could not see that it was impolite or arrogant to think yourself more important than others, the other reason being that even their generation considered it incorrect to say " me was playing""!

I hadn't noticed this, but I certainly do not ever do this myself, as far as I know. Was very thoroughly grounded in English Language as opposed to English Literature at school, plus Latin, and French, which also require a good grounding in grammar, all at A level.
But Jacky B, when you say "And one that has confused me in recent years is "sorry for" rather than " sorry about", you are (presumably) using the prepositions correctly, as the phrases have different meanings, depending on which one you use.
MY bete noire is "MY BAD"

I'm bit of a pedant and have just heard a youngster on radio talking about a recent experience. I counted at least six instances of 'like'. Spoiled her otherwise interesting rendition! Why do they do this?

Re euphemisms for death and dying: my late mother used to talk about, 'When I become an estate.'

Ok, but "away" isn't a preposition; it's an adverb. (See my name)

People don't seem to contact each other any more. They always reach out. The only time I reach out is when the remote has shuffled to the other end of the sofa.

I think this shortened form of speaking arose from texting. You were only allowed a certain number of characters in each text so superfluous words were dropped.

I shudder at 'outside of' & similar. We don't say 'above of', etc. I was taught that no preposition was needed after those and that using one was bad English. See: dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/outside

GrammarGrandma

Ok, but "away" isn't a preposition; it's an adverb. (See my name)

It is indeed, and can also be an attributive adjective (an away match)
“Away from” is however a multi-word preposition and “give away” a phrasal verb.

There are so many changes since we were young.
Sociolinguistics is an interesting topic.

Yes indeed, many announcers and journalists on the tv and radio say different to, it drives me crackers, supposed to be educated people who went to Red Brick universities.

Cossy

Where I live (in Essex) so many people appear to have stopped using “the” and “to” so they “go shops” “go Spain” “go Doctors” I cannot bear it, it sounds like gibberish!

That's extraordinary!
Depends whether I am talking or writing. Many people use shortcuts when they are talking.
I'm a tedious old stickler when I'm writing.
I still use the apostrophe.
My texts are usually grammatically correct( rather what I believe to be grammatically correct ).
Boring Old Twit. com

Dropping prepositions has been the norm in popular English in many regions, and for a very long time.

I heard on the TV an American say " the crew were unboarded"
It took me a moment or too to realise he meant "disembarked".

Sorry,not"too" but "to"

American posts often say that eg something is 'Off of'. What's wrong with 'From'?
Also when did, 'Come with' on its own start to be used as in, 'Do you want to come with'?
Also why are some things, 'In back of' instead of just 'behind'.

JackyB

On the other.hand there was a thread a.while back complaining about the unnecessary addition of them. I can only think of two examples off the top of my head - both of which I have since noticed in cooking videos: "cooking out" (as opposed to just "cooking") and "frying off" (rather than just "frying")

But I agree, in some cases the preposition completely changes.the meaning. "Debating Harris"? Who with?

Not to mention ‘off of’, and ‘outside of’ - both of which make me wince.

Cossy

Where I live (in Essex) so many people appear to have stopped using “the” and “to” so they “go shops” “go Spain” “go Doctors” I cannot bear it, it sounds like gibberish!

It's horrible to hear our beautiful language so abused and "go Spain" is seriously weird in my opinion but in an age where the methods and breadth of communications seem to be increasing exponentially it's probably not that surprising that some of the changes taking place sound odd.
Languages have always evolved and that evolution takes place , I think, primarily via the medium of the spoken word.
I love to see "proper English grammar" being a dyed -in-the wool pedant.
Just wondering which of my comments above are expressed in a way that is grammatically incorrect.....🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Helmet on and ......duck.

When did people start ‘bleeding out?’
I always understood that haemorrhages or uncontrolled bleeding could result in bleeding to death.
Bleeding out covers it all I suppose but seems ridiculously obvious.

Esmay

I believe that in the US a number of people fell into a coma .
They began to wake up some 40 years later and when they did the medical staff were struck by the way that they spoke .
It illustrates how a language is dynamic .
My children have laughed at the expressions that I use and been more polite at the ones my parents employed .
I have to admit to disliking the recent one of omitting the article .
I hate it when people "go toilet ."

And ‘go potty’ 😣

misb

Sorry,not"too" but "to"

or "two"...

Is it just the evolution of Language?
each generation changes it so it becomes normal.
I'm sure our Great grandparents would be horrified at so many things, from the written word to the spoken word.

I feel that ‘park ‘ and ‘park up’. have different uses. I use park as in ‘ I like to park in a shady spot’. For me ‘park up’ is used for a sort of break. ‘ I parked up for five minutes to stretch my legs’. I haven’t heard it used instead of the plain ‘to park’.

I try to speak properly and I manage pretty well most of the time but recently I said trahzis instead of trousers and I needaircut instead of I need a haircut. You can take the girl out of.....etc.