Destruction of the English language?

You are right. I am not opposed to slang or local dialectics, but it is mistakes born of ignorance (such as your examples) that annoy me most. It is even more disheartening that many immigrants, who don't even speak English as a first language, speak better english than many people who were raised here. The english language is by far the greatest language ever to have existed, and is to be celebrated in all its variations but, local words and colloquialisms aside, should be grammatically correct, especially when written. A good grasp of the language is essential, and the country should be split into a class system based on a persons use and understanding of the language - a lingocracy, with those who are unable or unwilling to use the language correctly being at the bottom of the proverbial heap.

That'll learn em!

I totally agree!

I can, to a certain degree, put up with bad spelling.

Those individuals who dont regard English as a first language also have my sympathy. Think of words like 'bow' - the front of a ship or boat and 'bough' - the limb of a tree; how confusing must that be?

But.....If you have been brought up and taught the English language from your formative years use it as it was intended. Or at least make the effort.

Oh by the way if there are any spelling or grammatical errors I appologise. Even I make mistakes.

The problem is so old now that many teachers have deficiencies themselves in their spelling, grammar etc, at primary and at secondary levels. During a tour of a primary school when my first-born was 4, I stood watching in horror as a teaching assistant "helped" a 5-year-old child by writing "101 Dalmations" in her book. Now at secondary school, my daughter recently regaled me with how her English teacher (!) had "corrected" the word "rhythm" to "rythm".

On the other hand, I remember being outraged when an exercise I had handed in for marking during a university mathematics course came back with a spelling correction marked up - I had written "independant" instead of "independent". At the time I thought, stupidly, that the tutor had no business marking up a spelling mistake - I wasn't studying English, after all, and my mathematics was faultless. Nevertheless, I never made that mistake again. In later years I realised he had done me a great favour in making the correction, because no-one can afford to slip up on details, even irrelevant ones, if they want to be taken seriously in the real world.

Blame parents too! Mistakes of this nature are common with children who do not have English as first language but have mother tongues other than English. The mistakes you point out generally arise when the speakers attempt to translate from their mother tongues into English, or think in their mother tongues when speaking English. Next blame school authorities! The learning of grammar is no longer fashionable in any language, the reasoning being that it is quicker and easier to first learn the language by rote, grammar and others to follow later, if at all. Many decades ago when the classical languages were still in vogue (Latin, Greek etc), mistakes of this nature were rare. Call it civilization, if you like, but that is how far progress has brought our children in languages, not only in English but any other language you can think of.

My pet hate is when people say (or worse, write) "I could of done", or "I should of said". These people live in blissful ignorance of the contractions "could've", "should've" and "would've". Using the word 'of' instead of the contraction makes absolutely no sense.

I have seen this crop up in reports and e-mails written by managers who earn a heck of a lot more money than I do! Yet at every job interview I've ever had, the minimum requirement for the job has been a basic English qualification.

Some of the memos floating around my office could've been better written by eight year olds. Don't even get me started on the use of the word 'ran' instead of 'run'!

Language is constantly changing and growing. We no longer speak as they did in the 1940's let alone 100 years ago. It just the natural evolution of the spoken word.

However it does go without saying that teaching values have dropped dramatically over the last few years with the emphasis on just producing course work not on the quality of work that is produced.

Bad grammar is a little frustrating, my pet hate is the constant erroneous use of the word literally in place of the word really. It means word for word, for crying out loud.

I have to admit, i am guilty of asking people to "borrow" me something, and quite possibly use the odd double negative from time to time. Although i can thankfully say i've never used the phrase "i don't know nothing".

When spoken, the odd grammatical mistake must surely be expected; whether it be down to dialect or just through laziness. i just don't find this a problem unless it transcends through to written English.

When our children start writing like this is the real problem, and i've witnessed this first hand. My mum is a primary school teacher and her children frequently write in "text language".

Surely this is a bigger worry and this is where you should be focusing your energy!

Also "we was" instead of "we were". As you say it's just bad lazy grammar and it's something that a rap on the knuckles would sort out. Unfortunately too many English teachers don't think it important to correct such grammatical (and spelling) mistakes and concentrate instead on this airy-fairy "creativity".

Good question Baldy.

Reading your answers so far, I wonder how many people

typed their answers in without checking that they had made a

mistake!

When you stated that you can put up with 'text talk' as a form of modern slang, don't you think also that the music industry too can take the blame? Listening to some artists it's no wonder that todays youth talk as they do! Minxy.

I totally agree.

Unlike most 14 year olds my age, I cannot stand it when people misuse certain phrases like 'center around' and when they use double negatives 'I haven't got nothing'. Most language deterioration is blamed on adolescents who couldn't care less about anything.

I also hate it when people say 'I literally died' or words to the effect. When people say things like 'I literally ran away', I cannot help but say, 'as opposed to metaphorically ran away?' In this society speaking properly is considered bad for some reason.