by JCSprenger

Created on: July 09, 2009

Language Woes For Famous People and Others Not So Much

It's - Its
Lie Lay
Like As
Fillers: I mean You know Ehh
Grammar Horrors: I'm like.. I'm Loving It I'm seeing..

President Obama was told by his aides that he exaggerated the use of Ehh when he tried to connect to different concepts during his campaign. He still does it from time to time as bad speaking habits are hard to substitute with good ones. Listen to television commentators who should know better, as they have often graduated cum laude from excellent colleges where presumably good speakers are formed and proper grammatical manners taught. They don't make such mistakes when they read the teleprompter but the minute they have to add their own comments, speaking errors start to appear in large numbers.

Rare are the famous people who speak correctly; they usually are over 50 and come from a disappearing era when schools still taught Latin and Greek and proper English grammar. With the recent trend by the Department of Education to emphasize math and science in public schools, less attention has been given to the English language; I ask, however, the rhetorical question: What good are science and math without a superior knowledge of the written and spoken language? My best friend, a Yale graduate, has asked me to correct his occasional mistakes and he does the same for me; the irony comes from the fact that English is my fourth language, after French, Italian and German. Perhaps the exposure to so many different grammars has sharpened my focus and that maybe of help for American students. Teach them a second or third language while still in elementary and restore Latin and Greek in high school (the main problem is to find qualified instructors).

Paying attention to proper language may not be part of everybody's priorities; for example, there are several instances of serious mistakes made by renown singers and composers (I love Eric Clapton, and his song Lay Down Sally can actually help you remember the difference between lay and lie... [record screeching sound] because he's wrong. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/lay-versus-lie. aspx). One may argue that a language mistake in a song won't hurt anybody; but what about a medical prescription? What about a legal document? What about an erroneous translation? Yes, there is a lot of confusion between lie and lay (not taking into account the other meaning of 'lie', not telling the truth). But anybody with a little effort could try to remember which one is which

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