There is a 70s era Vietnam protest song that has the line, "Where have all the flowers gone long time passing." That idea seems to be the theme of today's English language usage. Where has all the correct phrasing gone?
Today's English language is sprinkled with words and phrases that have no bearing on the topic. Some of these words and phrases appear to be more of a 'filler' to fill in space while the speaker's brain searches for the correct word or phrase. How many times has the word 'like' been uttered in your presence? I suspect that much of the time it bears no relation to the topic under discussion and more often is nothing more than a 'throw away' word. Example, a young lad tells his equally young friend, "Like, I went to like the show like the other day and like it was like lousy." Then there is the incorrect use of 'like' used in place of 'that.' For instance, "I went to the store like was near my home." Yikes! [An interjection.]
I often ask my pupils [and grandchildren and the older great-grandchildren] where they hear such nonsense. The response is always 'at school." Questioned further, they reply that it is from the mouths of their peers [well, they do not use the word peers] that they hear such usage. While that is bad enough, I am often told that their teachers utter similar poor grammar. One wonders where the teachers learned their grammar.
Also equally troubling is the throw-away "You know." I am often tempted to reply that if I know, there is no need to tell me and if I do not know, then tell me without advising me that I do not know what is about to told me.
Another 'ugh' is "right." When I hear a sentence end with the single word, I am inclined to say, 'Wrong!" I do not, however, because to do so would be to display poor manners. That aside, the urge is strong.
Canadians are often criticised for ending their sentences with 'eh?" Certainly, there are some who do but I hear the same equally nonsensical sentence-ending with Americans. Incidentally, I believe it was an American who coined the idiotic expression "At this point in time." What in the name of proper grammar does it mean? If verbiage is the intent, then that intent has been fulfilled; however, if brevity is the object, why not say, simply, "Now"? After all, all points [other than the one that ends this sentence] are in time.
One other sore point is the ever-increasing use of the American-coined "ain't." I have tried to understand why such a contraction is necessary when the more correct and certainly more pleasing to the ear, 'am not,' or 'are not' or 'is not' or 'have/has not' are just fine. Away back in the days when teachers taught and their pupils learned, my grade five grammar teacher drummed into my absorbing brain the expression "Ain't ain't in the dictionary." This was to impress upon me and my fellow classmates that we must not, ever, use the non-word 'ain't.' In those days, the non-word was not in a Canadian dictionary; today, with the northward spread of the non-word, it is, even in the venerable Gage Canadian Dictionary.
How many times have you heard a sports colour commentator use the word 'never' when referring to something that a player did not do. An example, a hockey colour commentator says, "He never got the shot away" or "He never got the puck on net" when referring to a player who failed to [a] satisfactorily shoot the puck or [b] was unsuccessful in directing the puck at the opposing team's goalie? The word 'never' means "not ever; at no time ever; not at all." It is the opposite of 'always' that means 'at all times' or 'every time.' Each is one hundred per cent. I have watched enough hockey games to know that the player has at some time in the past got the shot away or put the puck on net. There are others 'sore points' but those will suffice for now.
Incidentally, the aforementioned song ends," When will they ever learn."
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
Advertising Information 
