Are Grammer Dead In The 21st Century?

Its The Day To Think About It


Article heading image for Are Grammer Dead In The 21st Century?

Today is International Grammar Day and with thanks to Martha Brockenbrough it's a day dedicated to the much maligned English language.

Martha is a very successful author of books for kids and adults and some time ago she observed her beloved language being mangled once too often so she founded the National Grammar Day and The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Sadly, I think she might now be pushing the proverbial uphill with a pointy stick.

Before we go any further let me say loudly, I ain't no saint, sometimes my grammar falls over. I can identify a split infinitive but still have trouble with dipthongs all manner of other language rules.

In the last twelve months the Apostrophe Protection Society was disbanded with the sad realisation that people have just given up trying to use it properly.

Wouldn't it benefit all of us if one day we decided en masse that paying the mortgage was too hard so we gave it up?

The language is of course evolving, no longer do we use thee, thou or thum, perhaps we cannot then bemoan the improper use of tense, possessives or incomplete sentences.

I do wonder though if the discussion around "kids don't no how to spell anymore" is done for.

The NAPLAN tests are coming up again for school kids and there is a chance, as we've seen before, that the 3 Rs are in trouble.

Just this week I had a grown man text me advising "I seen this at the shops" yesterday.

How does someone complete 12 years of school and not have that corrected? Is it the fear of the red correction pen?

Maybe it doesn't matter anymore but at least we have International Grammar Day to thimk about it.

Please look over this peace and any corrections are needed should be pointed out.

4 March 2020

Article by:

Cliff Reeve




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