Insensitive? Possibly. Arbitrary? Maybe. Steeped in
privilege and arcane notions of propriety? Sure. But regardless, for some
elitist reason I cannot get past these commonly made mistakes in English.
Whether others have the same rules and pet peeves as I, everyone will judge you
in some way for how you speak. And believe it or not, you judge them, too.
1.
Pronouns
are for back-up. Only use ‘it’, ‘they’, ‘them’, etc. when that which is
being referred to is explicitly clear.
2.
Proper
verb conjugation. There’s two? No, there are two. This one is so simple, I really don't understand the issue
here.
3.
Adjectives
v. adverbs. He didn’t run slow. Don’t grab your coat quick. He ran slowly.
Grab your coat quickly. File ‘well v. good’ under this, too.
4.
Their and
They. These words always refer to more than one person. They are NOT gender
neutral singular pronouns.
5.
Correct
plurals. Criteria are many, criterion is one. Media are plural. Data are
too. Alumni are as well. (Bonus: ‘alum’, unless you’re discussing chemistry, is
not a word. Never use it. Ever.)
6.
Sentence
subjects. ‘Checked the door’. ‘Wasn’t there’. Uh, what checked the door?
What wasn’t there? Even if you think the subjects of these incomplete sentences
are made clear by previous reference, they are not. You need a subject here.
7.
I and Me,
Who and Whom. I and Who are subjects, Me and Whom are objects. Use them as
such.
Now of course I have made all of these mistakes at some
point in my adult life, but once I notice I feel dirty and embarrassed. How can
one notice mistakes and thereby improve one’s English? There are two ways to
notice mistakes: having an ‘ear’ for correct English, and knowing the formal
rules of English. The former simply means having your Colbert-gut attuned to
recognize mistakes, while the latter is the nerd version which will note that a
coordinating conjunction should only be used to join two independent clauses. If
you didn’t grow up with parents who used near-perfect English (I love my
parents but they know nothing of grammar), the best way to develop and ‘ear’
for it is to read it and listen to it. If you didn’t have grammar education in
high school (I must admit I did), buy this.
Regardless of what technological advances come (except perhaps direct thought propagation) language will continue to be important. And until human nature changes, people will continue to judge others on how they speak. The criteria, though, will change, of course. Like education in general, language is a lifetime process that requires constant attention, but for me it has been well worth the effort.
May I add to your list? Qualifying modifiers on the word "unique" make me cringe. A person, place, or thing cannot be VERY unique.
ReplyDeleteUnique - being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.
It is not possible to be VERY one of a kind. The subject is either one of a kind, or it is not one of a kind.
I agree completely, Jeff! Thanks for the addition. This one, too, vexes me.
ReplyDelete