Can we PLEASE use the english language correctly?

JaniceM said:
What gets me on this topic is slang. Haven't seen it in major news, but locally it's enough to make you want to tear your hair out. One example from awhile back- the title of an article on a local news site included the term 'LUNCH-SHAMING." Naturally, I had to read the article to see what the heck it was about. Turned out some schools were trying to figure out how to deal with students who came to school without lunch money.
However- my first though was I would have been fired on the spot if I'd used slang when I was working for print publications. It didn't take long to occur to me, though, I'd probably be fired or lose clients even now. I tried to shrug it off because the person who wrote it was rather young, but that's not really an excuse. If a person is getting paid for writing, the material should be professionally-written. "LUNCH-SHAMING"?! Seriously?!
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Those authors don't think they're using slang.

Ain't that sad?
 

Aunt Bea said:
Can you see me now!
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Haha, yes.

I've responded to posts (elsewhere online) that were a paragraph long run-on sentence, zero punctuation, zero caps, zero breaks, that looked like they were written by a pre-schooler.

I always get angry responses of course. I'm guilty of something (?) for pointing out that their post is unreadable. Then I usually say, "If America's illiteracy continues, then in another generation we'll be like chimpanzees -- screaming and throwing feces at each other."

But I quit doing that several years ago because it all seemed so pointless. That's why I LOVE :love: this thread because I can unload all my frustrations here!
 
Ronni said:
Are you intentionally being humorous with your apostrophe misuse? I can’t tell.
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Yes.

I typed out the comment, and then went back and added that for effect.

What makes this stuff particularly egregious is that the author is already sitting at a computer where help is only a mouse-click away. It's not as though they gotta reach up and grab their Strunk & White and thumb through it. But you gotta question the inaccuracy in order to be motivated to investigate it.

You know, someone commented that they don't judge others by their grammar. It's an interesting point. We tend to diminish the opinion of those who lack command of "the basics" as we see them. But it's just as wrong to make that assumption as it is to believe that someone's eloquence is anything more than a well-crafted veneer. We can be easily deceived...either way.
 
Old Dummy said:
I always get angry responses of course. I'm guilty of something (?) for pointing out that their post is unreadable. Then I usually say, "If America's illiteracy continues, then in another generation we'll be like chimpanzees -- screaming and throwing feces at each other."

But I quit doing that several years ago because it all seemed so pointless.
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Please clarify what "that" you quit doing, because criticizing those who are not receptive to you and throwing feces may or may not be equally pointless. ;)
 
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Old Dummy said:
I was just on another website and they were talking about the virus, and “heard” immunity. Sheesh. 😜

Have you ever heard of a buffalo herd having immunity? 🙈
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An old lady goes to a dude ranch and says to a cowpoke, "Look at that bunch of cows!"

"Herd," the cowpoke corrects.

"Heard of what?" asks the old lady.

"Herd of cows," the cowpoke replies.

"Of course, I've heard of cows!" says the old lady.

"No, ma'am, a cow herd," explains the cowpoke politely.

"Well, I certainly don't care if a cow heard! I haven't said anything I wouldn't want a cow to hear!" she exclaims and stomps off indignantly.
 
"lunch shaming" isn't slang - it is an accepted term in education and the related food service industry. I spent some time working for a company that was responsible for 100s of school cafeterias, and a lot of effort was put into avoiding and eliminating the stigma associated with the free lunch programs.
 
Buckeye said:
"lunch shaming" isn't slang - it is an accepted term in education and the related food service industry. I spent some time working for a company that was responsible for 100s of school cafeterias, and a lot of effort was put into avoiding and eliminating the stigma associated with the free lunch programs.
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Concept: understood. Term: another example of slang butchering the English language.
 
Ronni said:
On a Zoom call, (for those of you who aren't familiar Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others) so lots of people on the screen. In the course of that half hour video call, I heard the following:

I heard: "I could care less" (I COULDN'T care less!) "But I digest." (but I DIGRESS!) "All the sudden" (All OF A sudden!) and "A blessing in the skies" (A blessing IN DISGUISE!) Dear God, people!
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Also, while I'm on the subject, here are a few more of my "butchering the english language" irritations.

It's a dog eat dog world, NOT "a doggy dog world." I don't know what "carpool tunnel syndrome" is, unless you mean Carpal tunnel syndrome. The correct phrase is; for all intents and purposes, and not "for all intensive purposes." Supposebly isn't a word; the correct word is "supposedly" Also, it's just PIN and VIN, and NOT PIN number and VIN number....you are in essence saying Personal/Vehicle Identification Number Number.

Accept/except are in fact different words with different meanings. So are then/than, and effect/affect. And I think my all-time teeth grinder mispronunciation is "nucular" for nuclear.

This isn't rocket science, folks. If more people would read, and actually SEE these things in print, they'd probably be less likely to butcher them.

And DON'T EVEN get me started on the differences between their, they're and there! 🤬

EDITED TO ADD: I got curious, and looked up commonly misused words and phrases. A lot of these were in the few links I read. And what that tells me is that at some point, these will become so commonly misused that they will begin to replace the actual phrases, or will at least reside side by side in the dictionary. Much the way inflammable slowly fell into disuse because it was commonly mistaken to be the OPPOSITE of flammable, whereas they both in fact mean "able to burn" (and FYI the opposite of both word is Non-flammable)
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My favorite is when people add an s to a word like "I went to the Walmarts and got me one of those there...."
 
Then there's its and it's. That's one I have to think about sometimes because I forget it's there. I don't even remember being taught it. I'm sure I was.
 

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