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A few years ago I moved several hours away from my hometown to a slightly more rural area. Now, I understand that every place has regionalisms, and that rural folks aren't necessarily as concerned with "proper" English as some others might be, and I will be the first one to admit that I drop my g's and say "gonna" sometimes.
However, this is an area that is noted for its excellent school systems, and there are at least 5 colleges within a 45 minute driving distance. Yet every day I work with people who say "I seen" or "I had went," I have worked with teachers and teaching assistants who can barely string together a grammatically correct, complete sentence. On every sale site I see: rod iron, chester drawers, for sell. The first time I saw "chester drawers" I thought it was a joke!
It's beginning to drive me a little bit crazy. I don't understand why seemingly intelligent, well educated people speak and write this way.
OP, you've never met someone who's more of a stickler for grammar then I am. Maybe we should form a club. But here's my theory about "I seen...", "I been working on....", etc. I suspect that it's a shortened version of "I've seen", "I've been (doing whatever)", rather than an ungrammatical version of the past tense, "I saw". However, your example of "I had went" doesn't fit that explanation. I've never heard "I had went". That's weird.
I live not far from a city famous for being settled by German-Catholics (that is, persons mostly from the southern part of Germany). My command of German language is far from fluent, but I can get by. Yet I detect no consonance between the local ways of speaking English, and what would be grammatically or stylistically typical in German. Indeed, I am surprised at how little familiarity with German has remained in this region - quite the contrast, evidently, from the situation with Spanish in south Florida.
There's a constant influx of people speaking Spanish as their FIRST language in Florida, Texas, Southern California. Does your city have lots of German citizens coming in and settling down? So why would anyone particularly continue speaking German as part of their everyday interactions?
A few years ago I moved several hours away from my hometown to a slightly more rural area. Now, I understand that every place has regionalisms, and that rural folks aren't necessarily as concerned with "proper" English as some others might be, and I will be the first one to admit that I drop my g's and say "gonna" sometimes.
However, this is an area that is noted for its excellent school systems, and there are at least 5 colleges within a 45 minute driving distance. Yet every day I work with people who say "I seen" or "I had went," I have worked with teachers and teaching assistants who can barely string together a grammatically correct, complete sentence. On every sale site I see: rod iron, chester drawers, for sell. The first time I saw "chester drawers" I thought it was a joke!
It's beginning to drive me a little bit crazy. I don't understand why seemingly intelligent, well educated people speak and write this way.
My husband is an engineer, and says "I seen" and says "festibal" instead of festival. Ibupopen instead of ibuprofen, and yes it annoys me. LOL
And I'm from the south. Very familiar with chester drawers. LOL
I work with someone who is intelligent and educated, and who also says things like "ambalance" and "liberry".
I worked with a man who was in an executive position. Master's degree. Says "ax" and "birfday", and he is not African-American. He grew up in a rough section of the Bronx, so he probably picked it up on the street.
I have heard people pronounce drawer as draw...and spell it that way.
+1
A woman retired from our school system, and then decided to become a "consultant" in the educational field. She mailed-out announcements of her new job status, and the last line of her letter stated something along the lines of...Even if you don't currently think that you will need my services, please keep this letter in your top desk draw for future reference.
My exh always said "pacific" for "specific", and I have heard others say, that, too.
+1
My brother's first wife was also guilty of that verbal gaffe, but there were so many others that I can hardly remember them all.
One that I do recall was her reference to London Broil as "London Broiled", at which point my partner would add, "in 1666".
She always looked confused when that comment was made.
My dad, who was from Ohio, said chester drawers. He also called pants "drawers". We had a next-door-neighbor called "Mr. Chester". Which caused a lot of confusion for me as a four year old. I was pretty surprised when I realized Mr. Chester was a fireman and not the guy who made chester drawers. Which held drawers.
Last edited by DewDropInn; 06-12-2017 at 12:31 PM..
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But here's my theory about "I seen...", "I been working on....", etc. I suspect that it's a shortened version of "I've seen", "I've been (doing whatever)", rather than an ungrammatical version of the past tense, "I saw". However, your example of "I had went" doesn't fit that explanation. I've never heard "I had went". That's weird.
