As a proud member of the Facebook group, "You use bad grammar, therefore I judge you!", I just want to tell you how jealous I am of Mignon Fogarty - aka Grammar Girl! She gets the distinct pleasure of discussing and correcting grammar, and people don't get mad at her for it! Lucky!! Her website, by the way, is www.grammar.quickanddirtytips.com .
I am a mom of two fantastic kids... a boy (17) and girl (15). My mother always corrected my brothers' and my grammar, and thus I did/do the same to them. In fact, my mom tells the story about how a neighbor girl was talking to my brother when he was little, and then looked at my mom and said, "He doesn't talk like a baby, like other kids do." Mom smiled to herself because she knew it was because she made sure we used proper grammar from the moment we started forming sentences. She will never forget that story because it made her feel so good for having put forth the effort.
Anyway, my daughter came home from school with a story about how a teacher had actually looked at her sideways because she (Zoe) had corrected herself in a difficult grammatical situation (like who vs. whom, or me vs.I, or something like that). The teacher said, "You really know your grammar, don't you?" and Zoe replied, "My mom has been correcting me my whole life. She's obsessed." (Or should that be obsessive?)
So when she told me that story, I told her that I have to ignore bad grammar with other people, because most people don't appreciate being corrected. She went on to tell me, "I know. My friends hate it when I do that, too." Hahahahaha! I've raised a grammar machine!
Well, at that point, my husband chimed in and started talking some nonsense about how we should know what people mean when they use bad grammar and we should let it go. Of course we know that...and I do...when I have to...but then I twitch! Not physically, really, but my brain does!
My biggest pet-peeve: Using "I" instead of "me"... as in, "Tom went with Suzie and I". UGH!!! The reason it bugs me so much is because the speaker thinks they are RIGHT and purposely used "I" but they really are WRONG! And, when a person uses "me" properly, the majority of the world thinks it's used wrong! Ahhhhh!!
Bottom line... I am jealous of Grammar Girl because she gets the privilege of correcting grammar AND I DON'T!!!
Thank God I had kids... so I can correct someone's grammar AND I don't have to get up to get the remote! Ha Ha!
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2 comments:
I had to laugh about this.
I get pretty irritated at the "me" vs "I" thing as well and for the exact reason you mentioned. If someone doesn't know which to use, they just throw the "I" in and assume they sound educated.
That being said, I still have a hard time remembering when to use "who" or "whom" so maybe I'm just a hypocrite. HA
Tammie,
I'm sorry I didn't see your comment until now. Thanks so much for it. You made me smile! The whole "who vs. whom" thing is kinda scary to me, too. I went to Grammar Girl's website to try to get an easy clarification, but I suspect there is no easy explanation. I've heard if you can substitute the word "him" in the sentence, then it should be "whom", but sometimes it's too hard to do on the fly, when you are actually speaking. I think that's one of my biggest grammar frustrations, too! Ugh!!
Based on your comment, I think we would be the BEST of friends! Ha ha! We would sit around and pick apart other's grammar skills! What fun!! Hahahaha!
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