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.

Username

Hairy

Member Since

November 2, 2011

Total number of comments

29

Total number of votes received

93

Bio

Latest Comments

Two Weeks Notice

  • September 24, 2011, 5:30pm

Oh, and may I add that I should have written "five-years old child" in the plural in my previous post.

What happened to who, whom and whose?

  • September 24, 2011, 5:26pm

The distinction among who, whom and whose has become merely an affect. If you want to sound like you are 'of the people', you should say, "I gave it to whom", because it is the object of a preposition. But if you want to sound like a normal person, just say, "I gave it to him/her", which is not a direct object, but is correct in common usage.

cannot vs. can not

  • September 24, 2011, 5:23pm

Cannot is only accepted in the U.K. It is not considered to be correct in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

mines

  • September 24, 2011, 5:21pm

I think the problem is not that African Americans are trying to change the language, as you say, Sam, but that African Americans have been speaking a valid version of English all along that is yet to be recognized as correct by privileged, white English speakers.

Wow, what a douchebag you are, Entomophagist!