Shawn L. Bird

Language is a mutable thing. I remember being taught that as a kid.  I know it’s true.  In the past 20 years, I have watched with interest as adverbs have disappeared. When I started teaching English, kids had no trouble identifying adverbs. They were easy to spot, since most of them ended in -ly. We’d find the verb of the sentence and ask how? He walks. How? Joyfully! Quickly! Sadly! Carefully! Morosely!

Now kids struggle to find the adverb because the easy identifier has vanished. When people speak these days, they often use adjectives in the place of adverbs.  How does he walk? Quick.  Sad.  Morose.  Careful.  Joyful.  It is confusing for kids to learn the ‘correct’ option versus the common usage. It does not help that the government does it, too.

Ever seen this  sign?   DRIVE SLOW!

ARGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!

Every time I see it I re-state it correctly: DRIVE SLOWLY!!!

Seriously, how expensive would it have been to add those two letters and make it a correct sentence? Wasn’t there anyone at the Public Works Yard who knew correct grammar usage?

>>sigh<<

We can’t fight the tide. Language changes. It is the essential nature of living languages that they grow and alter. It’s just really hard on the English teachers.

(and don’t get me started on ‘their’ being used as a gender neutral singular pronoun instead of a plural!)