I was once on a hiring committee at the local elementary school. We had a big fight about it, but in the end did not hire the teacher who used “conversate” as a verb.
Good for you. I don’t have the appetite for those fights against those types who would take the other side of that argument. (Of course, didn’t GWB make up some words like that, or am I just remembering the fusillade of mockery as fact? 
)
I think many people only learn that when they take a foreign language, although I’m not sure that today they might not have found some way to avoid teaching that.
Does anyone ever diagram a sentence anymore? I thought that was pretty valuable as a way of “structuring” thoughts, and we didn’t really spend much time doing it. My sense is that no kids can do it today, but I’m not sure I’m right about it.
agree with post 12, too, but I think I have explanation.
Would’ve may be a contraction for would hAVE, BUT TO THE EAR IT SOUNDS VERY MUCH LIKE WOULD OF. So others repeat what they thought they heard.
Caps by mistake.
We just made a phone call to check the status of a backorder. The voice on the automated system had a southern accent. This struck me as very unusual. Being on the West Coast, I don’t hear a southern accent very often, and I can’t remember the last time I heard an automated voice with one. A West Coast accent is the norm on programs I watch, and in all truth, when I make calls or talk to people in person I probably am more accustomed to hearing voices of people from other countries than I am to hearing voices of people from southern states.
Southern accents can be pleasing and soothing. Not harsh or brusque. Makes the “I’m sorry there is nothing we can do for you” easier to swallow.
I said this before on the other grammar thread but “try and” is a usage PREFERRED in particular situations by the most august of usage experts, Fowler included. I would be willing to bet big bucks that EB White himself used the “try and” idiom. My new library shelves are not yet built and my books not unpacked so I can’t quote verse and line citations. But this is one of those hypercorrection myths that really gets my goat!
PS. One of the most careful users of language on the Supreme Court is Justice Breyer. When I was a law review editor, I got an earful from him when I suggested changing “try and” to “try to” in a piece of his I was editing. (And I thought he was going to strangle me when I suggested “Most importantly” as a substitute for “Most important.”) You can disagree with Justice Breyer, Fowler, and scores of others on this point but you should not call others with a different view “wrong”!
(Please excuse all the typos. I’m composing this on my steamed up iPhone in the bath without my reading glasses. If I attempt to edit, I’m sure I will drop my phone into the water!)
My D was student teaching recently, and her classroom teacher constantly used poor grammar of the type discussed in this thread. It made my D crazy (and of course she couldn’t correct the woman) and made me want to weep. Few students at this school hear proper English at home, as most of the parents are uneducated and many speak no English at all, so my feeling is that they need to marinate in proper English for as many hours a day as possible in order to make successful lives for themselves. Instead, they’re being done a terrible disservice.
Okay, thank you Google. Here’s EB White using “try and.” See the first quote under the subheading “Essayist.”
Post #14 - that’s ‘Cindy and I’, not ‘Cindy and me’.
Refer to the converse of Post #15.
It’s time to refer everyone to Weird Al’s ‘Word Crimes’ video on youtube.