"I don't believe in guns." Really? My grandpa-in-law has some, I can take you over and show you some time. They're real, I swear!
"I don't believe in gambling." Wow. Have you ever heard of Vegas? It exists, I swear!
Okay, so I know this is a little thing, probably even tinier than the "hopefully" thing that dashed my husband's nerves to pieces when I would say things like, "Really? You are going to go to the restaurant while full of hope for dinner?"
Personally, I don't particularly enjoy gambling and think it's a waste of money, and I don't carry much affection for guns, though they have their place in this world, but I do believe in them both. 'Cause, you know, they exist and all. I don't know why, but I've been noticing this particular little grammar faux pas showing up everywhere from movie dialogue to conversations with other people lately.
I worry sometimes about the future of the English language. It's already confusing enough with all the little colloquialisms and regional slang, but when common errors become accepted parlance it's enough to make the grammarian in me shudder. Woefully, not hopefully. What common errors in grammar make the Grammar Nazi in you come out?
Argh. I really like you, so I'm afraid I can't be as mean to you as I normally would be to people who say things like this. :D
ReplyDeleteThe English language has always changed. That's the beauty of it.
I think you were being a tad tongue-in-cheek. Um, hopefully, anyway. ;)
Dave
Dave - I`m almost always tongue-in-cheek when it comes to stuff like this, though I guess I have a tendency to be subtle, which is hard to convey on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI do have a great fascination with words and grammar, which, interestingly enough, didn`t come from the English major side of my college studies, but the other half of my double major of American Sign Language. It made me look at words and grammar very differently as it`s extremly literal in ASL, and things like using hopefully out of context of the original intent or saying "I don't believe in guns" would be taken at face value.
I started playing with it, teasing people with it (like I do with my husband and "hopefully" which kinda blew his mind, because most people have never heard it used in it's original way). I never intend much more than snark about it. Unless someone writes loose instead of lose. Then my head explodes.
I tend to be subtly ironic almost constantly myself, so I always feel a bit daft when I miss it in someone else.
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