In the spirit of unusual baby names...

[brightrosefox]

http://community.livejournal.com/grammar_whores/4267759.html

Seriously, the only way I will ever accept that atrocious misuse of "I" when one means "me" or "my" is if a person is actually named I.

Someone, please, tell me what happened to grammar education in the last decade? And when did adults start using bad grammar like it had all of a sudden become okay? Why do intelligent TV and radio show hosts throw around (for example) "This is Eddie and I's first interview with a movie star" or "Direct all your questions to Tony and I" like it's the right way to say it? Has language really changed? If so, why was I not informed? Did I miss a memo? When has it ever, ever been okay to misuse the pronoun I this way? Why is it so difficult for people nowadays to grasp the rules about subjective and objective nouns/pronouns? What happened to education? Even outside of school?

Who is "I"? Who the bloody fuck is this I person, and when did he get so popular?

/random rant

In related news, unusual first names are starting to grow on me. I no longer mock them. I had a dream last night where a lady I chatted with on a bus wanted to name her unborn twins "Volcano Insurance (male) and Cloud Insurance (female)[last name]" and I thought it was awesome. She got it from an episode of Family Guy. I woke up from the dream laughing, I swear.

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Yet another case of our educational system failing in grade school. They get corrected for saying "___ and me" and somehow think that it should always be "___ and I," that it's somehow more formal or intelligent-sounding than "___ and me" and we know that couldn't be more wrong. We either over-teach omitting "me" or we just teach it badly. If we could just hammer in the simple rule "omit the '___ and' and what would you say?" lesson, that'd be 90% of it right there. Only the Bizarros and forty-third presidents would miss it from that point on.

My favorite name combination of the last few days is Kedzie Anthrax. I'm hoping she'll be an attorney-at-law, a private detective, or a ninja.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

My main issue is that people who have been out of grade school for decades now think it's totally acceptable. I keep wanting to shake them and demand, "Have you completely forgotten those grammar rules drilled into your brain? You grew up in the 70s/80s/90s when grammar was really taught, I mean smashed into students' heads in most public schools. What happened? Did it just fly out of your brain?"

Kedzie Anthrax is fantastic. It sounds like a foot infection caused by certain type of shoe.

[officeninja.livejournal.com]

i an i say tell me why babylon

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Why babylon what?

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

I went to primary school in the late 80s and early 90s and I don't remember receving a single grammar lesson until about year 6 when my teacher drummed into us the "It's always Eddie and I!" rule into us. We had spelling and punctuation drilled into us, but not grammar.

As for high school, that was a joke. My English classes consisted of reading YA fiction and answering short questions on the book.

I feel quite annoyed at my lack of education in grammar. it irritates me that I've been walking around using incorrect grammar for so long I don't know when I'm right or wrong anymore. I'm trying to learn the rules of correct grammar now but really, I think I should have been taught these in primary school.

So, in other words, I agree that adults using bad grammar is annoying but I am even more annoyed that they've been taught poorly.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

That's depressing.
Okay, that is really depressing.
I had no idea, really. All I knew was that my school was very very VERY intent on teaching proper grammar. If you didn't pay attention in English when they taught grammar, you were in trouble, because the teachers would give you red marks all over your papers. Failing students would stay after school, there would be tutors applied. I mean, my school really stuck it to grammar education!

I am just now coming to realize that not every school had similar rules. I guess that might make me seem kind of elitist, to think "Well, why not every school?" But I claim ignorance in that. All the friends I had who went to different schools were extremely well-versed in good grammar. It wasn't until last year that I really learned that the public education system in my country -- in the world -- was severely, horribly lacking.

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

I know, it's extraordinarily depressing.

Honestly, if you were taught that way in school and all of your friends were, it's natural to assume that was the case for everyone else. :)

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

True. :)

Here's hoping that sooner or later we get better teaching systems for language and grammar.