Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

Pain in the English
Pain in the English

Unpacking English, Bit by Bit

A community for questioning, nitpicking, and debating the quirks and rules of the English language.

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email

Member Since

March 23, 2006

Total number of comments

3

Total number of votes received

15

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Latest Comments

Is ‘love’ continuous or not?

  • March 23, 2006, 8:43pm

I am believing that the slogan "I'm loving it" was being invented by a person from India. ;-)

“It is I” vs. “It is me”

  • March 23, 2006, 8:30pm

Nicholas Sanders is on the right track. The notion of which is "correct" in English was formed largely by people who considered Latin to be the perfect language and that its grammar should inform English grammar, even tho English grammar is morely closely related to Old Norse (as Danish is). So the tortured explanations of case and special conjugation are ways of explaining what people *thought* should be right (to make English conform to Latin) rather than the *actual* way common folk ever spoke.

Consider:
It hit me.
It beat me.
It surprised me.
It puzzled me.
It is I.

I think unique spellings have less to do with fads or ignorance than the fact that they 1) draw attention to your product, 2) create a memorable brand name, 3) can be protected as a trademark, and 4) can create instant product recognition (Kleenex must have something to do with being clean).