Thursday 23 January 2014

Words Are, Like, Hard, You Guys



I have writer's block.

Maybe it's because I'm not inspired to write anything. Maybe it's because I can't concentrate. Or, maybe it's because the English language is so damned hard.

Honestly, have you ever stopped to think about this? In the past, some people have referred to me as a grammar Nazi and this is ridiculous for two reasons. The first is that for reasons I will outline below, I mostly make it up as I go along. The second is that usually I am merely picking up on the fact that they are simply using the wrong spelling of the correct word for their sentence.

I don't think we are in any position to blame them, we own a language that can have three words that sound exactly the same but have different spellings:

There; their and they're.
Two; too and to.

We also literally have words that are EXACTLY the same (homonyms - feel free to try and make jokes) but mean completely different things depending what context they are used in:

"A solitary tear ran down my face."
"I have a huge tear in my dress."

"She left."
"It's to the left."

Seriously?

We wonder why people struggle? I can completely empathise with newcomers who can barely grasp our ridiculously complicated native tongue. Hell, half of the deep rooted locals here can't grasp it either!

Oh, and add to that the widespread sarcasm that is almost impossible for people to pick up on, coupled with your basic, run of the mill words being scooped up by the youth and spat out as colloquial slang, then the whole language becomes a veritable minefield for anybody to wander. How is someone who is new to the language possibly to know that saying "It's cool in here!" without slipping in a "nice and" means you're basically bragging about your awesome surroundings and not commenting on the temperature as they probably intended?

This is why I have so much respect for writers and wordsmiths, and why I can't call myself a proper writer because at times, I can't even grasp what is deemed to be 'basic English'!

Words are, like, hard, you guys.