Anyone else out there think that the English language is becoming a lost art?

Question

As I was driving the other day, I saw a sign that said, "The Church's of Laddonia Welcome You." Ok that's neat, but the church's what? Don't you mean "churches"??

Then I was watching television yesterday when a scrolling message came across the top explaining a change in programming. A line from the message read, "...KMIZ will resume it's regular programming on Monday." Good grief! Don't those people have broadcasting degrees? They can't even spell "its" for heaven's sake. "Its" as a pronoun has no apostrophe people. If you want to say "it is," then you use one.

As if those things weren't bad enough, I saw a t-shirt with the words, "I tease my sister until she cry's." CRY'S! Are you kidding me?? C-R-I-E-S.

I may be a grammar freak, but it doesn't bother me when the average person makes a mistake. However, it does bother me when a broadcaster or a t-shirt printer or a newspaper editor makes a mistake.

Should I not let it bother me so much, or are my feelings justified?

Answer 1

Yes.

Me agrees with ewe.

Answer 2

I get irritated by stuff like this too.
On a lot of things you buy there will be an obvious mistake, but a lot of the times these things were made in a foreign country and translated by someone there.
But I am all the time reading books and newspapers and watching TV and thinking "how could they do that?!" but then I make the mistakes myself and realize.. It's kind of easy to let the mistakes slip out.

Answer 3

Your feelings are justifiable. Those things you mentioned bug me too. We, however, should just let it go or we can go crazy. We're in no position to fix this mess. I can't figure out why people can't use the apostrophe right. Just look at the posts on public forums and you can easily see why English is going down the drain. I have a few times found grammatical errors in news articles by AP, Reuters on Yahoo News and sent emailed them my reproach.

Answer 4

To answer both your questions, respectively, I type yes, followed by yes.
It is disheartening to consider that what we consider proper grammar and spelling are being slowly mangled in our societies.
Language, however, is not an art, no matter how much we may classify it as such. Language lives and changes daily--always has, always will. You may be reacting to the fact that the changes are coming so quickly, and that the resulting language is comparatively sloppy. C'est la vie!

Answer 5

I think you should get a LiveJournal instead of posting your complaints here.

Everyone is already quite aware that the English language is left raped and mutilated by the side of the road since hundreds of other questions remarking on this exact same topic already exist.

Answer 6

Your worry about this is a no-win battle. Perhaps you should develop a sense of humor, rather than getting irritated over something that you cannot control, and that will not be getting better anytime soon.

Answer 7

What really bugs me is when people say "there's" instead of "there are", as in "There's some people who..."

"If I was" instead of "If I were" also gets under my skin.

Nobody is perfect. I suppose it's the natural evolution of language, and something with which we shall have to live ;-)

Answer 8

I agree, and it's always the dumbass "them immigrints need to lern Inglish" people who make the worst mistakes in English.

Answer 9

You can say that again - it drives me nuts too, in an existential sort of way (meaning I groan when I see it but I don't lose sleep over it; however I do form a negative opinion of whomever commits that kind of blunder).

Your/you're, their/they're/there, ours/our's, yours/your's, hers/her's (still waiting for his/hi's), its/it's, apostrophes used in plurals, and people spelling "what" as "wat" or "wot."

Answer 10

Have you read the book "Eats, shoots and leaves"? I think you will enjoy it.

How about "your" and "you're". That's the one that gets me, along with people who confuse me and I.

"Me and my mate went to the pub"