I Were Wondering the Same Thing

Posted by sadcox

October 16, 2007

I came across this Mother Tongue Annoyances post by way of Kat Coble at Music City Bloggers. I’m taking a big risk linking to this blog, fearing that Tim W. may visit here and rip a new grammar hole in me.

Ach! This usage of was grates me so intensely because in my opinion it makes the speaker sound so powerfully ignorant. Not necessarily “low-range IQ” ignorant, but “blissfully unaware of the standard rules of English grammar” ignorant. We must recall that the adjective ignorant derives etymologically from the Latin ignorantia (“Not aware”).

This is one RSS feed to which I’m sure I’ll be subscribed for a while. I haven’t had a chance to dig through the archives to see if he’s already written an article on “people who try to look smart but really show how ignorant they are when they use ‘I’ instead of ‘me’ as the subject of a verb”. You’ve seen and heard it many times I’m sure…

“Tim gave a grammar lesson to Chris and I.”

Hopefully, he’s already addressed conjucating “be” as well.