I call it “Their Native Tongue” because English, it is not. Here in America we speak a modified version of English which should more properly be called the American Language. Why, well, one very obvious thing to look at is how we spell things and what we call things, for example, the English spelling of the word color is colour. There a many other subtle differences as well in spelling. Then there is what we call things where in England it is one name and in America, another. What we call a car’s trunk in America is at boot in England. Other such notable difference is a truck in America is a lorrie in England and as trolley car is a tram.
But Americans in general but journalist in particular seem to butcher proper grammer and word usage. Last night I was watching a t.v. show where a guy referred to something as being “notoriously good.” The problem with that usage is that it is a contradiction in terms. That is, notoriously means something or someone is bad which in essence means you are calling something badly good. Makes no sense. The proper usage is either notoriously bad or famously good. But even in those proper usages there is a type of word that Americans frequently use improperly and that is the adjective and adverb. For example, when someone asks you how you are feeling, it is improper to say you are feeling “bad.” The proper usage is to say you are feeling badly. The difference there is that you cannot use an adjective as a direct object where an adverb belongs. The other such example is using a participle at the end of a sentence, such as using the word “of” to end a sentence. For example, you say “there is nothing I can think of.” Properly using the word “of,” the sentence should read, “there is nothing of which I can think.” This may be the most difficult usage the average American can change his way of speaking.
Journalists, people who should be well versed in the proper word usage, frequently misuse words in both print and speaking. One of my great bug-a-boos is the using of the words “fewer” and “less.” The word “fewer” is meant to describe words which are plural whereas “less is mean to describe words in the singular. For example people frequently say “I have less days” where it should read “I have fewer days.” In dealing with time, it is proper to say “I have less time” where “time” is a singular word. Using that same word in the its plural form is to say, “it is happening to me fewer times.” Another is saying “I have less dollars now” where it should be “I have fewer dollars.” And so it goes.
One answer is to inform students during their grade school and high school years, when they are learning the American Language,” is to inform them why they need to learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Learn to speak properly is dry but also extremely important. For the college bound student who must turn in written papers, a professor will not waste his time on explaining about the improper sentence structure and word usage which will in turn be reflected on the paper’s grade.
The other way to get Americans to speak their language properly, is for journalist to lead the way. But also, those who are responsible for teaching our children necessarily need to speak and write the American Language properly. Repeated proper usage in the presence of students from their earliest years of education to the latest, will reap benefits for all.
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