Is it me or is English getting worse?

Question

Is it me or is English getting worse?
I notice that around 95% of questions asked here contain terrible English and sentence structure using the wrong tense and spelling.

Example below:

If you watched the care bears cartoon, what was the proper words to the theme tune?

I think they meant "What were the proper words..."

People spell off when they mean of, to when they mean too.

I can imagine a few mistakes, but take a look at the questions and answers, you can find a mistake in most of them.

Your views?

Dean

Answer 1

Yes I must admit my spelling & grammar has declined over the years.
What bothers me are the people that don't even try or are proud of their ignorance. Many people purposefully use bad grammar to appear "cool" or "gangsta".
FYI : Yahoo's "check spelling" function is not a very good tool. It passes many of my errors!

Answer 2

A few things:

1. People are writing a quick message on Yahoo Answers, so the likelihood of decent English is very unlikely. Even if people are good at the language, the fact they are writing a quick comment means most people overlook the basics.

2. Texting does have something to do with it.

3. Even more so is Microsoft Word.

4. About as equal is 'n*gga' langauge - with people writing like how words sound in 'da' hood. Foo'

5. It's why we employ editors for when something is officially released in the public domain, like print media, press releases and the writing on the side of your Kellogs box.

6. Writing is a fine art, that does take time to master unless you are either naturally gifted or can see the link between words, numbers and repetition - like me.

7. There are more important things to worry about. You should only worry about your own English - after all, it will be you who writes anything that has any meaning in your life.

8. The world's about to end. So who cares?

Jesus?

Answer 3

It starts at the top. The 6th Grade grammar of people in the media proves that these role models are lazy and stupid. Education bureaucrats are responsible for refusing to drill students in English and coming up with the anarchic idea that students will learn just by imitating professional speakers.

Grammar exercises the mind and is as vital to a thinking person as working out is to an athlete. For the most part, it is not arbitrary rules made up by a small clique. Ironically, the modern perversions of grammar and word usage are produced by a worthless clique that has the power to change language to reflect its own ignorance and lack of logic.

Bad grammar mutates into even worse grammar. For example, the poorly constructed, "What the problem is, is permissiveness" has evolved into "The problem is, is permissiveness." Expect the word IS to mutate into IS-IS before long.

Answer 4

You are correct.
I understand that there will be a certain amount of dialect changes as time moves ahead. Any American dialect is far different from the original Queen's English and that is far from Shakespearean English.

But, this is not a dialect change. This is a lack of education or caring by a younger generation. I suspect that no one tells them when they are using bad grammar.

My mother was all over me with grammar rules. One of my teachers made me write 50 times on the blackboard "I will not use the word brang. I will use the word brought".
It worked. I haven't used 'brang' since.

What makes it worse is that in this day in age there are spell and grammar checks built into most programs. The corrections are just a click away, and yet it goes on unused.
It makes a person sound uneducated. I suppose in some circles that is cool.

It’s shameful, really.

Answer 5

The English language is not getting worse its the way the language is being used and we are all guilty of this.ie texting and the abbreviations that are being used. Plus people are just to damn lazy to prononce the words correctly. Slang is being used more and more in todays day and age. So soon you will find more and more new words getting introduced to the language system.
Example 2 words into 1 to make a new word ie uright could mean are you all right. Its not too far away

Answer 6

You need to understand that most poeple are new to computers and this world of text. I myself have been working with computers for 20 or more years and I started with them because I could not type and could not spell. I still can't spell and the spell checker helps a lot. However, There are times when I the spell checkers don't help so I have to reword the whole statment. I hope I do a lot better then what you show in your examples.

Kids texting and poor spelling could be what the problem is.

Answer 7

English per se cannot get worse, but the phrasing of your question is a prime example of the real problem, the poor use of the language. It seems these days that so few people are able to construct a simple sentence with correct spelling and punctuation.

Answer 8

If English is a second language to someone, then their spelling and word usage is understandable. But for English speaking people there is no excuse.

I agree with you that the language could and should be tightened up. Many of the guilty are young people whose printed words pretty well express their spoken words.

And then we wonder why American students are on the downslide.

Answer 9

It worries and saddens me that in 50 years time we will probably have lost the ability to string a sentence together in written form. Words like 'you' and 'are' will be replaced with a single letter.

As for the questions and answers.... I think some people are too lazy or in too much of a rush to check what they have written and some just don't have the basic spelling and grammar skills to know they are wrong.

I'm panicking now in case I've messed up!

Answer 10

I make mistakes...but then English is my 2nd language. On the other hand I feel as though my English is better than some people that are not bilingual.

There is a lot of slang on here and there is that useful tool called the "check spelling".

Answer 11

There is a new language, a variety or pidgin of English, which is not proper English, that is developing here and other places on the web, through texting, mostly. It's horrible.

You made a good observation. If I were you, I'd stick with Shakespeare or some proper English material.