Is America that screwed where the simplest grammar can't be figured out? How do you live? No other country mangles THEIR language like America. Figure it out.
2007-05-17 08:41:47 · 16 answers · asked by Skinny 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Skinny, I agree with you that on the internet people write very poorly and it annoys the hell of out me but you keep posting again and again complaining about people's vocabulary and syntax. You are make statements not questions and you are only annoying people and stirring trouble. I agree with you but stop going on about it, please.
And besides it's not just American people, it is everyone is general in all languages. In French people are ignoring tenses and moods and relative pronouns. In Irish they are ignoring declension of nouns... etc etc. It is not just Americans it is all English speaking groups. And it is not just Anglophones but all speakers of every language.
Bare in mind that languages get progressively simpler as the decades and generations pass. French, Spanish and Italian for example are much simplier than Latin. The reason is that people just got sloppy in their Latin speaking progressively watering down the rules of the language and using in it different ways that the language changed and broke into dialects which with the help of borrowings from other linguistic groups became new languages. No one would go around today saying that French speakers are stupid or idiots because they put their nouns into different declensions.
And any rate posting on Yahoo Answers won't change anything.
2007-05-17 09:06:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
That s just one thing, along with you re/your, to/too, than/then, who s/whose, it s/its.... and the list goes on. And it s not only Americans either. It happens in every English speaking country. Just have a peek at Facebook and see how Australians write, or Brits, or Canadians. You will notice the same thing. Also, it seems that no one knows how to use apostrophes correctly. I can t for the life of me understand why the literacy is so poor in such developed countries. I come from a culture where grammar is considered very important and that s why people in English speaking countries who are originally from my country always write very well. I don t know any foreign languages other than English, so I can t tell if it s so bad in other languages as well. As someone who studied English as a foreign language, I do make some mistakes in sentence structure, but never in those basic things.
2015-09-12 14:53:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, for one thing, people have too much TV. The average American just doesn't read like some of bookworms do, so they don't develop the visual memory.
So, because the English language is such a mish-mash of older language roots, Slavic, Latin, Celtic, etc...
we have no simple system.
America would have a lot more confidence and a better time in school, and with literature,
if we all just conducted life in Spanish.
And I HATE that we're losing English to Spanish.
But if the Takeover occurs, then our great-great-grandchildren will breathe a little easier!!!
2007-05-17 08:47:26 · answer #3 · answered by starryeyed 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
What you have to remember is that most Americans are descended from immigrants whose first language was not English. Also, there are very few "Native Americans" who would claim English as their mother-tongue. (Did you know, by the way, that German was nearly adopted as the official language of the US. Just think what fun that would have been; imagine trying to read the instruction manual for your Ford tractor in German!)
And what kind of grammar lets you use phrases like "How don't people know...", and "...that screwed where the simplest grammar can't be figured out."?
Go on, read them out loud and see how truly egregious they sound. You can only get away with it because one of the great virtues of the English language is its (NO HYPHEN!) flexibility. Get over it, get over yourself, and be much more careful when next you seek to criticize.
Hope this helps.
2007-05-17 08:59:36 · answer #4 · answered by Snoom 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I believe the problem lies in the poor spelling education in the early years of children. I know older peole (old enough to not have grown up with the current technology) who can't see the difference between 'it's' and 'its' or as you mentioned between 'there' and 'their' and 'they're'. Besides de fact that with text messages, instant messages, etc, laziness and slang are a must (or though to be by all these people).
2007-05-17 09:01:50 · answer #5 · answered by Kamy 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It's just laziness, and it isn't confined just to Americans.
I'm American and I don't do it.
People are people the world over and some of them are just bone idle....the web just happens to bring out the worst and more Americans are online than anyone else.
2007-05-17 08:58:59 · answer #6 · answered by Angela D 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The simple rule to remember the difference is: "THERE" is used for non-living things and pointing something in any direction and "THEIR" is used for living things or objects belonging to these living things as- their mother.
There are many books on the table.
2007-05-17 08:52:46 · answer #7 · answered by sameen_sohail2000 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You don't seem capable of constructing a simple sentence, so go figure!
Seriously, how is it possible that people don't know the difference between the words "THERE" and "THEIR?" This sentence reads a lot better than that mess you wrote!
2007-05-17 08:54:55 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Your grammar needs work.
Instead of: Is America that screwed where...
Try: Is America so screwed up that...
To learn more, move to Canada.
2007-05-17 08:51:26 · answer #9 · answered by reedman 2 · 2⤊ 4⤋
Not only is ignorance bliss, it has become fashionable. We see the same evolution here in Europe.
2007-05-17 08:52:32 · answer #10 · answered by Erik Van Thienen 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋