Liz: that reminds me of http://www.penisland.net

bwahahaha!!!

Your welcome! Its my pleasure.

; )

While I can’t think of websites that peeve my grammatical senses, I’ve been tilting at a windmill regarding my local high school’s nickname. They are the ‘Vanguards’. My issue is that ‘vanguard’ is already plural (much like the troop argument above). Vanguard = a group of soldiers. So when I’m cheering on the football team, I shouldn’t be yelling “Go Vanguards!”, it should be “Go Vanguard!”.

Of course, I live down the road from Lands’ End, so maybe it’s in the water.

Obviously, if you believe that the only word you can use correctly is “y’all”, then your life is defintely sadder as it is obvious that you are not even using that word correctly.”Y’all” is a contraction of the words “you” and “all”. Therefore, it is by definition plural and would require an s to be plural possessive. The examples you list would be better substituted with the word “your” as the context of the sentence indicates a singular meaning. Also, just so you know, I was born in Louisiana and have lived their and occasionally in Mississippi all my life which is why I am so critical of anyone who claims to be an expert on the word’s usage just because she’s from Louisiana.

That said, rT is throwing stones at glass houses when he calls others asses. Celebrating illiteracy and careless use of language is idiotic. There’s nothing pretentious about knowing how to use the word “whom”. And, knowing a smattering of Greek root words can be helpful in deciphering unfamiliar English words.

And while it’s true that language is always evolving, that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. The evolution of language is a dialectic. On one side are the radicals who use it in new ways, and on the other are the conservatives who are sticklers for traditional rules of spelling and grammar. Between them, the language slowly evolves, forcing new words and grammar to prove their worth. Where language is useful and precise, it deserves to survive. Where it isn’t, it doesn’t.

To paraphrase a source I wish I could remember, yes, language evolves, but that doesn’t mean we should let it devolve from fingers to flippers.

Wait, what?

Dialect refers to the specific way one’s group speaks–it differs by region, and race, and culture, among other things and one does not make a mistake in their native dialect unless inebriated or otherwise compromised. For communication purposes, Americans tend to switch from their native dialect to the Standard English Dialect. This Dialect is the basis for all the grammatical mistakes we are attacking here.

I loved this course. It helped me lighten up AND gave me a new respect for others’ differences. :)

The “got milk” campaign bothers me. No, I don’t HAVE any milk.

Texas can suck it.