Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You will never be taken as seriously as a professional if somebody else can present him or herself far more eloquently and with much more polish, and he or she is up against you for the same positions, recognition, etc. For all those who were told that learning how to spell, write, and speak appropriately was optional, the joke was on you.
I find it difficult to overlook mistakes on a taped message from the superintendent of public instruction for the state.
I think people in the news media should know correct grammar, but they don't.
I can overlook mistakes when someone in the public is thinking and talking and just chooses the wrong words and is not allowed to change them. They may have changed their thought pattern in the middle of the sentence.
I wish the people posting on this forum would be more careful of their grammar on certain groups of words such as their, there and they're. Another very misused group of words are your and you're. Seems like there is another word that is misused with that group, but it just does not come to my mind right now.
I guess we just all do the best we can.
That business person who speaks so clearly with no local or ethnic flavor has probably learned to do that when they were misunderstood about something.
My daughter befriended a person from France and had to drop all contracted words because her French speaking friend could not understand what she was saying when she used them.
I think it is good to use correct grammar, but I find it offensive when I hear someone making fun or putting down a way of communication that is different from our own. I also think the pronunciation guide in the dictionary should be changed to the way a word should be said rather then the accepted way it has come to be said. The word "our" is a perfect example. Some people just say the letter "R" for that word. I pronounce it about the same as "hour" and although the dictionary does not support that, I think it is correct. I think the dictionary and anyone that says "R" are wrong. Just because one lives in the part of the country where the book is printed should not let you decide that everybody else in the world should pronounce a word incorrectly. We have phonics and I think the people who print dictionaries should start using phonics and not rely on the way the people in their region say the word. If this keeps going on, one day we will all be saying "your" when we mean "you're. This has to be one of the most misused words in the English language.
This is a website I found while checking my spelling. I am spelling challenged and have to check many words. I have such a problem with this that sometimes I leave misspelled words because I don't realize they are misspelled.
This guide pronounces "our" the same way I do. I saw a guide in one dictionary that was more like the "R" that I hear so often from the people in the D. C. area. They don't even pretend to pronounce the first letter at all; it is just a straight letter "R."
Didn't you just read my post? I said I had several professors who weren't eloquent. They preferred obscurantism over intelligible English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
You will never be taken as seriously as a professional if somebody else can present him or herself far more eloquently and with much more polish, and he or she is up against you for the same positions, recognition, etc. For all those who were told that learning how to spell, write, and speak appropriately was optional, the joke was on you.
So what if I like to say "yall"? What is wrong with that? That is part of the culture here in Texas. I didn't start using until I got here. And I love it. I love saying it. It is easier and more amusing for me to adress several different people at the same time by saying "yall peoples need to get it together" then "Everyone you really need to quiet down and use your inside voices" like we're elementary school children. I don't need to do it and I don't see anything wrong with my so-called ebonics. I'm not trying to become president of the United States. Why should I rid myself of inner amusement and fun for the likes of a snooty goody-two-shoes that I could care less about? Peace out hombre.
Would you write it in a professional communication, though? Therein lies the difference.
Regional dialects, colloquialisms, slang, informal and/or conversational speech, etc. have their place in spoken, casual language. I write far more formally when the situation calls for it, than I speak when the situation doesn't call for it. There are pepole who don't know the difference. I've edited undergraduate research papers where concluding paragraphs begin, "So, like I was saying earlier..." Come on.
P.S. Pretty sure the President of the U.S. knows how to speak in regional slang, too.
I've edited undergraduate research papers where concluding paragraphs begin, "So, like I was saying earlier..." Come on.
Seeing things like this make me feel simultaneously happy and sad. I feel happy because I think to myself, "I may not be a straight-A student but at least I can write well" and I feel sad because there are people in college who write in such a casual manner for an assignment that is anything but casual.
Y'all be chillin, yo. Non-Chicka in da house. Lissen yo, I be axin ya a question mark and waitifyin on the four-one-one.
No, really. There's a difference between "informal" english and "incorrect" english. Things like "axe" instead of "ask" - would be incorrect. I'm not really axing you a question. I'm not even asking you a question, but hopefully you get the idea.
When your speech reeks of ignorance, rather than intentional informality, then I won't take you seriously. Saying "gonna" instead of "going to" is just lazy speech, it's neither incorrect nor informal. If I was in a job interview, I'd endeavor to use less lazy, less informal speech. However, in informal conversation, I really don't care what I sound like. As long as the people with whom I am conversing understand me.
Y'all be chillin, yo. Non-Chicka in da house. Lissen yo, I be axin ya a question mark and waitifyin on the four-one-one.
No, really. There's a difference between "informal" english and "incorrect" english. Things like "axe" instead of "ask" - would be incorrect. I'm not really axing you a question. I'm not even asking you a question, but hopefully you get the idea.
When your speech reeks of ignorance, rather than intentional informality, then I won't take you seriously. Saying "gonna" instead of "going to" is just lazy speech, it's neither incorrect nor informal. If I was in a job interview, I'd endeavor to use less lazy, less informal speech. However, in informal conversation, I really don't care what I sound like. As long as the people with whom I am conversing understand me.
I think most people do this. When I am at work, or in a meeting, I speak differently than I would with my friends or family. It's a problem when the speaker doesn't make the effort to polish their speech when the situation calls for it.
What I find most amusing is that the commenters who most often weep for the decline of "English," are also those who cringe when an infinitive is split and know all of the Latin endings. Is this English or Latin? If it is English, then we should follow English rules, which allow for split infinitives (it's impossible to split and infinitive in Latin anyway), and for plural nouns to end in 's' not a/ae/i.
You forgot the following plural declensions:
-ies
-oes
-ves
-en
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
