Where or were?

I agree but I think some of it is to do with autocorrect. My laptop at work is awful wrt grammar. It tries to turn it into things that don’t make sense

I do an on-line quiz to keep my brain in gear. It is a good quiz but the presenter doesn't know how to pronounce words properly and it isn't his accent- I just don't understand how basic these things are and yet they get them wrong. I shout at him almost everytime he does it! Maybe he should have some questions on correct pronunciation.

What's the quiz?

I always taught this to differentiate between the words that
‘Where’ is often about a place. It has the word ‘here’ in it, which can also be a place.

Well it’s obvious, they’re totally different words.
Were is the past tense of are and where indicates place eg «where are my glasses? They are not where they were» 🤣

Like Wales and whales 🤣🤣🤣

When you say «Nobody seems to know the difference» I despair ( head banging emoji)

What should I say?

Do school children learn grammar any more? Parsing, précis, clauses etc.

RosiesMawagain

Well it’s obvious, they’re totally different words.
Were is the past tense of are and where indicates place eg «where are my glasses? They are not where they were» 🤣

Like Wales and whales 🤣🤣🤣

My anglicised sons laugh at my Scottish pronunciation that aspirates whales but not Wales.

kircubbin2000

What should I say?

Well frankly loads of people know the difference.
However I am regularly shocked by the posters on FB and the like whose level of literacy seems to be that of a child.
Years of teaching languages to teenagers should have reconciled me to spelling and grammar mistakes , but when I read Chester draws, brought for bought, shacking for shaking, and some of the other howlers, I despair.
Actually I apologise and take it back - or part of it- too many people do NOT know the difference!

There is also "we're" to add to "where and were". If people were taught that the ' stands for letters which have been dropped from the word, perhaps they would get that and many other similar instances right.

"we are" becomes "we're" (but possession is written "our")
"I am" becomes "I'm" ((but possession is "my")
"you are" becomes "you're" (but possession is "your")
"do not" becomes "don't"

My sister became a primary/junior school head. We often argued when I pointed out poor grammar and punctuation. She always said that she was not concerned with correcting mistakes as it stifled creativity.
I can only hope that most teachers do not hold the same views.

I can only hope that most teachers do not hold the same views

Language is about communication and if the wrong word is used, that impacts clear communication.
I think all this «stifling creativity» is fine if you are aiming at creative writing but not if you aim to convey something accurately and clearly.
Do we encourage «creative arithmetic» when the plumber bills us for work done? Or «creative vocabulary» when a doctor writes out a prescription? (TG s/he doesn’t hand write it any more, but that’s another issue.)

Plus as a language teacher my personal experience is that one is duty bound to teach the correct forms of vocabulary and grammar.

She always said that she was not concerned with correcting mistakes as it stifled creativity.

I heard that so many times in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
The advent of SATs revealed how appalling some spelling and grammar was, actively condoned teachers defending 'creativity' to the death. Probably still doing it.

kircubbin2000

What should I say?

Well, for a start not no one because that’s obviously not true.
You could say ive noticed a lot of people
The same as we gets overused.
Everytime I see dont we all I shout ( at the screen 😀) no we dont.

JamesandJon33

Do school children learn grammar any more? Parsing, précis, clauses etc.

I don't think it is about what young people are taught. I am in a few local history groups online, and the majority of members are older than me (maybe in their 80s and above) and their spelling, grammar and sentence structure are often 'interesting'. Many people left school very early when those people were young though, so the chances of their having parsed sentences and declined verbs are slim - most people were streamed at eleven and taught what they needed to know in oder to get a job at 14. That doesn't impact on the validity of what they have to say, though, and it doesn't mean that those who were taught about the subjunctive or whatever have more interesting things to say, however correctly they might express it.

There was also a period where things such as parsing and formal grammar were discarded, and this had a knock-on effect, as a whole generation of teachers had little or no knowledge of them, so couldn't pass on what they didn't know. I taught university students who didn't know fairly basic grammar until they were told. Again, it didn't make them less able - none of us know what we haven't been taught. Those people will be in their 30s and 40s now.

Younger people are much more likely to be taught grammar nowadays, and stay in education for longer than ever before, so yes - schoolchildren are taught grammar - in a lot of cases probably to a higher standard than many of their parents and/or grandparents.

kircubbin2000

What's the quiz?

It's called Twenty Questions on Spotify. He did it again today- saying the word 'navigation' with a soft g, as a j sound. He isn't a child either, over 40 years old. Now I listen just to see which words he gets wrong!

KS2 SATs in English demand that 10yr olds know about fronted adverbials

Doodledog In England, the school leaving age was increased to 11 in 1893, 12 in 1899, 14 in 1918, 15 in 1947 and 16 in 1972
So 94 year olds could've left at 14, younger than that, they left at 15 or 16.

Caleo

RosiesMawagain

Well it’s obvious, they’re totally different words.
Were is the past tense of are and where indicates place eg «where are my glasses? They are not where they were» 🤣

Like Wales and whales 🤣🤣🤣

My anglicised sons laugh at my Scottish pronunciation that aspirates whales but not Wales.

I shout at the weather presenter, Alex Beresford, because he always pronounces Wales as Wells.
He really should know better, he's from just across the border in Bristol!!

Surely what kircubbin2000 is saying is that the grammar on some social media sites is quite shocking, not always due to autocorrect and I've noticed the same on local Facebook pages.
Some of these posters went to the same school as my children, who seem to have no problem.

Any errors I make are entirely due to autocorrect 😁

Chardy

Doodledog In England, the school leaving age was increased to 11 in 1893, 12 in 1899, 14 in 1918, 15 in 1947 and 16 in 1972
So 94 year olds could've left at 14, younger than that, they left at 15 or 16.

My parents left school at 14, although both had passed the then Scholarship. For reasons of logistics and finances, neither was able to take up a place at Grammar school.

Their education at village schools was rigorous. Neither had a problem with spelling or grammar.

I don’t think I have ever used ‘where’ when I should have used ‘were’ …..

JamesandJon33

Do school children learn grammar any more? Parsing, précis, clauses etc.

IMO they certainly do learn grammar, and it seems a bit more complicated than when I was at primary stage. Last weekend we were going through some SATS practice tests with Gdd1, who’s coming up to 11, and I remember in particular questions about ‘determiners’ (a term I wasn’t familiar with despite having studied several languages and taught EFL) and adverbial phrases.

I was particularly pleased to see questions about when and where to put an apostrophe!

She attends a C of E state primary, in case anyone’s wondering.

Chardy

Doodledog In England, the school leaving age was increased to 11 in 1893, 12 in 1899, 14 in 1918, 15 in 1947 and 16 in 1972
So 94 year olds could've left at 14, younger than that, they left at 15 or 16.

Ok, but the point remains