<p>Honestly, I don’t neglect grammar, but first someone needs to own his/her own communication and have a personal investment in it. Then/than doesn’t make much difference to a student who’d really rather copy the entire essay from the internet. I laboriously correct every grammar mistake, but if I subtracted points for everyone the entire class would fail. Some of colleagues do that, but I can’t see that much is gained. These failing students vote, raise families and do other important things in our society. An English class operates on many planes and has many lessons to impart. In a choice between critical thinking skills and minor grammar details I think critical thinking trumps grammar, though a thorough understanding of grammar can help critical thinking skills.</p>
<p>A first lesson is that they can’t write textese. This comes as a shock to some students.</p>
<p>Ok so can someone explain why the older generation says ‘by’ accident and the younger generation says ‘on’ accident. Where did they get that from? Now i understand why the foreigners i know often just leave out prepositions.</p>
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Another pet peeve: Would you loan me a couple dollars? OR Would you loan me a couple OF dollars?
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<p>I hate that people are using the word “loan” for “borrow.” Typically, it’s along the lines of: “I loaned money from the bank.” Ugh…you borrowed money from the bank, the bank loaned you some money, or you got a loan from the bank. </p>
<p>I also cringe when I hear…“Me and Susie went to __________” Ugh!</p>
<p>When should we use “Office of Admission”, “Office of Admissions”, “Communication Major”, “Communications Major”, “Department of Education”, “Department of Educations” (stretching here)?</p>
<p>I really don’t understand the incorrect usage of “me” and “I” because the rule is so straightforward. It drives me crazy, even when it is done in a song for rhyming purposes.</p>
<p>My D used to say “on accident” when she was a little girl. I assumed it was related to “on purpose.” </p>
<p>Many of these common errors are related to lack of reading experience. After you read “by accident” a few times, then that is what you say as well.</p>
<p>I have one that grates on my nerves. I’ve heard several people refer to someone who died as “having passed”. Passed calculus? Passed their driving test? Oh, passed AWAY then SAY THAT or just say they DIED!!!</p>
<p>I have been astounded by that as well. I understand that grammar rules can be quite complicated, but the use of “you, your, and you’re,” as well as “their, there, and they’re” is BASIC. I can hardly believe that apparently no one can be bothered to teach this anymore.</p>
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<p>If you said that to me, I would have to respond by saying “I believe you mean with whom.” ;)</p>
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<p>That was my thought as well. People often argue that it’s the meaning which is important. I don’t understand why both meaning and form cannot be important. Why must we choose?</p>
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<p>I agree! There is a thread in the Parent Cafe with a blatant apostrophe error in the title, and my eye goes to it every time! It irritates me every time I see it. One automobile=a car. Two automobiles=cars, NOT car’s. Arghhhh…</p>
<p>Nrds sees that point as I do. Still, for me, I’d go a step further. If I am having trouble reading/understanding because of the form, then I am less likely to be willing/able to concentrate on the meaning.</p>
<p>Some of the examples cited are, IMO, pure ignorance – there’s vs. theirs, etc. But others are evolving changes in the language that bother us old fogies but that younger people regard as perfectly normal – and that by the time they have grandchildren will be accepted usages that bother no one.</p>
<p>For example, I doubt even the most pedantic among us would find anything objectionable in the sentence “My house is being painted.” (Well, a passive voice Nazi might question whether it is in good taste, or necessary, to use the passive voice; but even that person would surely concede that as passive voices go, it is a well-formed passive voice sentence.) But had you used that same construction 300 years ago, you’d have been regarded as “not speaking English,” because (according to R. L. Trask, “Language: The Basics,” [Amazon.com:</a> Language: The Basics eBook: R.L. Trask: Kindle Store](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Language-The-Basics-ebook/dp/B000P2XH9E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338145122&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Language-The-Basics-ebook/dp/B000P2XH9E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338145122&sr=1-1), from which the example comes), that usage did not come into English until well into the eighteenth century. An English speaker would have said instead, “My house is painting,” which sounds very odd to our ears.</p>
<p>So yes, when my kids say “I’m going to McDonald’s, want to come with?” it grates on my ears. But I doubt very much it will bother many people 50 years hence.</p>
<p>Languages change; this is one of the ways - the younger generations adopt some usages and drop others, and the innovations gradually become the standard.</p>
<p>As an immigrant, I can understand and follow any English grammar. But when it comes to pronunciation, I have to struggle. I have seen strange pronunciation like “Sean Connery” and many other words. I also had more trouble with street names in Spanish like “Via de la Valle”, “Calle de la Rosas”,… in California in my early years. I am also amused that some people I used to work with could not spell or write correctly “kernel” or “colonel”.</p>
<p>DD had a classmate who fancied herself as quite the academic who pronounced colonel the way it looks. DD’s daddy is a colonel, so she was amused.</p>
<p>If it’s just a caption, I think you can say “My dog and me” and interpret it as being short for “This is my dog and me”. (Even though we know that technically we are all supposed to say “It is I” - so let’s say it’s short for “Look at my dog and me.”) I agree that if you want it to be the subject of a sentence you have to use “I”. For a caption, I’d probably write: 2009 - my dog and me about to take a walk.</p>
<p>As for those misplaced apostrophes - I am appalled by them, and yet I’ve caught them in my own typing frequently. I also do weird stuff like leave off the letter s on verbs, making me sound like English is not my native language.</p>