What has happened to grammar?

Question

As I sit here from time to time, I sometimes notice that the spelling and grammar is horrible? What is "I was wit my moms", as an example? Sure its acceptable to have two mothers now-a-days, but wit? I know what the poster meant to get across but what kind of Language Arts are they teaching children today?

Answer 1

The texting is one the reasons...that's absolutely correct. But additionally, chat rooms and/or social websites have fostered a whole new language that's a combination of street slang and text-shortening. For example, I read this exchange in a chat room one time:

Chat user one to chat user two: Dats a fugly pic on ur profile.

Chat user two to chat user one: WTF do u care wut I look like.

Chat user three to chat user one: Doan hate.

Some of these words use the same number of characters [Doan is virtually the same as don't], so ease of typing isn't always the reason it's written like that. It's more of a phonetic spelling that is meant to convey the spirit of the casualness or even the conviviality of the mix of people in the room, or, maybe even it's an attempt to keep people at bay, like gang-speak.

Lots of times people who are eager to join socially in an arena that is strictly written lack good writing skills, so that has a lot to do with it, too.

Answer 2

I hate it.  I'm 16, and I hate text language, and all the other things that kids use these days.

I think anyone who does use it, just looks like an idiot.

Answer 3

This happens not only in English language, but all over the world.

I think many people don't care about the grammar.

They think it's only a boring useless thing. Something to fight against.

An obstacle to fast conversation.

I sometimes can't read some SMSs I receive in my own language because of the shorts and the huge grammar mistakes in them.

I don't know what to think when reading those awful mistakes made by a mother-tongue speaker.

And if you try to correct them, they get angry and tell you to shut up, instead of thanking with you for helping them...

Answer 4

They don't teach grammer like they used to. They're too lazy. No wonder the kids today can't spell !

Answer 5

I agree with you completely, but at least you're an adult (I think you are anyway). I am 17, which means that I have to be surrounded by this grammatical chaos for most of my waking hours between september and june. I am so tired of the "did you do good?", "I don't have no money", and the "Where is she at?". I don't want to hear any more "ain'ts" and I pray that people will someday learn the difference between "your" and "you're" and "there" and "their". I swear that sometimes I feel like I have been the only one awake in english classes since 1st grade. As a person who is planning on going to college to study linguistics, it is like torture for my ears. So, please know that you are not alone in being annoyed with this. If we stick together maybe there will be hope for the world. * Crossing Fingers*  

Answer 6

Pure ignorance! The youth today don't respect anything, even their cultural identity (including language). It's not exclusive to the American youngsters though. I have observed the same problem in many other languages too.

Answer 7

I put a large part of the blame on instant messaging and text messaging. The need to use "alternative, or creative spelling" so as to type your message faster has butchered the american/english language. Not to mention what it's done to sentence structure and punctuation. The rest I chalk up to just plain laziness on the parts of students and teachers.

While we're at it, what's become of good old penmanship and "script" writing? All those beautiful looping letters swirling one into the other. These days I've seen people print their names on legal forms, even when they are clearly marked "sign here". again, I blame computers and cell phone text messaging.

Answer 8

wow, i agree. I'm in high school living in the state of maryland, and people here don't seem to know what the heck grammar is. It drives me CRAZY. one of the main things people do is use the word 'good' instead of 'well'...such as "you drive good." But yeah, like you were talking about, people don't spell words correctly on the computer just to be lazy. Haha, I really don't get it.

Answer 9

True Dat!

U R so rite

Answer 10

My grammar died after a long stay in a nursing home when I was just a little kid.

Just kidding... I think part of the problem is down to SMS texting and the necessary contractions that it uses.