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I find it very sad that the young people I come into contact with on a daily basis don't appreciate the wonderful tool that is within their grasp which they fail to reach. They are the custodians of the richest, the most colourful and flexible language on this planet. It is they who should be carrying it forward so that generations to come might experience the joy and unadulterated pleasure their Mother tongue can provide.

But no. Sloppiness in sentence construction, mis-pronunciation of words and poor grammar prevail.

What are my pet hates? 'Me and my friend' instead of 'my friend and I'. Two mistakes there. The reply to 'How are you?' has now become 'Good'. Good? Good? What does that mean? One is either well or unwell! Hello has become 'Hey' and the word 'like' punctuates every sentence. 'Ya-no'and 'no wha'I mean' get dropped everywhere like litter

The words 'go' and 'went' have now become very prevalent in the place of the word 'said'.'So I go "what you up to?" and he went "nuffink". Help!

Then there's pronunciation. The sound made by TH has now been replaced by V of F. Hence brother is now 'bruvver'. The letter K gets added onto words ending with ING -'somefink'

But then again, if Shakespeare popped up today, what would he make of even the most correct of all spoken English - that used by the Queen for instance. He would probably be horrified that his beloved language had been torn apart.

English - any language infact - is a living and developing thing. It evolves and it moves forward. And nothing I say 'aint gonna stop it!

Learn more about this author, Keith Hillman.
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