Three of my faves:
1) "Just between you and I."
"They gave it to my wife and I."
(Worse) "They gave it to he and I."
It's me. Me. Me. Me.
And him. Not he.
2) "These type of things."
I hear this from sportscasters all the time. It's types. These types. Of things.
3) Listen for this one. You will hear it more often than not.
"The fact of the matter is, is ..."
"The problem is, is ..."
The subject has become not just "The fact of the matter", but "The fact of the matter is." The "is" gets said twice. Listen. You will hear it often.
This isn't grammatical esoterica. It's pretty basic.
So don't call me a snob.
4 comments:
Well I certainly won't call you a snob. I've definitely become a convert on this grammar issue, especially after seeing all these idiots on the interwebbings trying to communicate without the use of punctuation, correct spelling, grammar, etc.. You actually CAN'T understand what these people are saying. They might as well just vomit on a piece of paper and hand it to you and ask you to read it. Anyway, my grammar is pretty terrible too, which I really regret. I need to do something about it.
The first thing you pointed out Dad is ABSOLUTELY a fault of our current education system (well, all these grammar problems are, but this one VERY specifically). I remember how much all my teachers growing up tried to hammer into our words that you're supposed to say "I" and not "me" in order to be polite. They didn't explain the distinction between "John and I are going to the baseball game," and "Do you have a problem with me and John?" They just hammered the one common mistake into our heads so that no one would say "Me and John are going to the baseball game." They fixed that one pretty well, but then everybody was saying "Do you have a problem with John and I?" I was making the same mistake for yeaaaaaaaarrrrs until you guys finally corrected me.
I'll bet the reason the teachers didn't explain the distinction, Luke, is that they didn't understand it themselves.
I'm throwing a little party here to celebrate your Grammar Conversion.
We think in words. If you can't use your language correctly, you can't think correctly.
Does bud nipping have a hyphen?
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