English at school

[Dazmum]

The use of the word 'like' drives me crazy, i.e 'he was like, just standing there, and I was like, what are you looking at, I was like, so angry'.....aaaaagh. Sorry and breathe.

Swearing on tv is worse, I heard a shocking one come out of Ian McShane's mouth the other night on an otherwise really good drama, Pillars of the Earth, quite uneccessary I thought.

I'm not very good at apostrophes, but when I see them in the wrong places in corporate advertising as I did on a massive Halfords banner the other day. I felt like going into complain, and I should have done via their website I suppose!

[nelliejo]

going off at a tangent a bit, but -

two oft-said phrases used to really confuse my boys when they were younger because they take everything so literally. Now they're a standing joke in our house

When reporters and newsreaders said "....started in earnest" son No 1 would ask "where is Earnest? Can we move there?. Everything starts there so it must be a great place to live"

and in films when a character says "Fire at will" son No 2 wanted to know what Will had done to upset everyone and why was he in so many films?

I love Autism - really helps you change the way you see the world

[SandySea]

I'm sooooo glad I'm not the only one. I have a real problem with the use of I and ME.
WE were taught at school that if unsure, remove the other person and you'll immediately see if the sentence should be I or me. Such as ....

Mary and me went shopping, or Mary and I went shopping. Remove Mary. Obviously it's not "me went shopping", so it becomes Mary and I.

He gave it to John and me. He gave it to John and I. He gave it to I? Obviously not, he gave it to ME.

But if it's not bad enough that everyone now uses "me", what really gets to me is that everyone puts themselves first. Me and Mary went shopping. I hear it in movies, I've heard teachers say it, and I recently cringed when I heard a journalist use it in a news bulletin!

I wonder if putting "me first" is a reflection of where the world is heading?

The other one that drives me mad is .... "I mean". I suppose it's a step up from "ya know" which used to punctuate every sentence once. But some people even start sentences with "I mean". How can they correct something they just said, when they haven't said anything yet?

Or am I just becoming a cranky old lady Oh gosh, I sure hope so, I've been waiting for years to be able to get away with being mean and eccentric!

[thel31]

Not quite the same, but what drives me crazy is the play on words in newspaper headlines nowadays. It started in the weekend supplements but has now spread to main news items on serious matters.

[nelliejo]

I wonder if putting "me first" is a reflection of where the world is heading?

spot on

[Maxi]

english is alive,ever-evolving with daily usage.each generation re-creates it,in a way.
so,i do embrace this concept of living english,organic,growing.

but i do cringe too.

cant help it.when i hear one person describe another person as:"Well Fit" i worry.

When I hear a person describe an event they attended as:"It was Well Good!".

I think,"how well,awfull!".

another annoying thing is the use of the word "like".

Example:"I like,went to,like see,gordon and,like,jus chilled,like,jus chilling,you know,like?.Ipod and like stuff.".

i heard the bit of deep insight into a person evening acctivities on the bus the other day.


Then those retorical questions we here so-much used now.

"How Good was that?".

or,reflecting the comercialism of the times:"Thats a Must HAVE ESSENTIAL".


i JUST LIKE,WELL,LIKE,FEEL ITS,LIKE,SO-NOT-FIT,THE WAY,LIKE,WE SEE,LIKE ENGLISH SPOKEN NOW,LIKE.


oH,THIS STUFF IS CATCHY....LIKE.

[SandySea]

Whatever .....

[susieq]

the one that gets to me is

"I saw it with my own eyes"

well whose eyes are you going to see it with, if not your own

[Maxi]

i aint dissin english or am i bro.but i cant make this stuff they use now out...like.

[Scally]

the one that gets to me is

"I saw it with my own eyes"

well whose eyes are you going to see it with, if not your own

Oops]VISIONS OF MOSES[/b]. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in June, 1830.

1]

OK, it may have earlier antecedents too, he wasn't known for his originality: Shakespeare used the term too in "Alls Well That Ends Well" anyway:

KING.
Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she’s thy wife.
BERTRAM.
My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your highness,
In such a business give me leave to use
The help of mine own eyes.
KING.
Know’st thou not, Bertram,
What she has done for me?

They both have antiquity on their side]Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σίβυλλα τί θέλεις; respondebat illa: ἀποθανεῖν θέλω.

For I myself saw the Sibyl indeed at Cumae with my own eyes hanging in a jar; and when the boys used to say to her, "Sibyl, what do you want?" she replied, 'I want to die."