To be, or not to be. Alas, I knew him... Rant

Rennie Heuer

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You know, when I was in school (Don't you just love it when we old guys start out with that sentence?) our English teacher always told us that the verb "to be", and all its various iterations, was the most important verb of all. So, if that's the case, why is it disappearing from the common vernacular?

Way too often I hear or read statements like, "It needs fixed", or "It needs replaced". What? It doesn't need replaced, it needs TO BE replaced!:bang::bang::bang: I have even heard it in commercials on the radio! Are proof readers with a basic understanding of third grade English a dying breed also?

Sorry. Just one of my pet peeves that REALLY get to me.:deadhorse:

Rant off.:D
 
If it was fixed then that is what it needed, Fixed :thumb:

Some things get fixed, some need fixed, when they get fixed they don't need fixed any more, when they got fixed, it negated the need to get fixed, getting fixed is a relative thing, just ask the dog... because the dog got fixed, he has no new relatives... Perhaps you've been fixed and as a result, your fixation on getting fixed. Years ago LOML suggested I get fixed, thinking it was a financial future she was conserned about, I agreed, Had I known that being fixed for life has different meanings to different people. :eek:

I saw a man with twelve kids, he needs fixed. :p
 
Boy, they're piling on!

FWIW, I very much agree with you. What we model, children mimic. And so it goes through the generations. I wonder if we ever think about that?
 
I agree. It needs stopped.:D

Thread's over in one. Mohammad wins. :rofl:

Phrases like "it needs fixed" bug me too, but they just go in the big ol' box with all the other English language butchery I see. And every once in a while, I like digging through that box and using some if it myself.
 
While I understand the jokes, I can't but completely agree with Rennie.
One starts by allowing oneself this sort of "linguistic licenses" and ends with a very poor language, not being able to describe things with other words than: nice, cool, and awesome.

Then, we are surprised to find out that the reading comprehension of our adolescents is extremely low and that a big percentage of them are barely able to read.

Not applying words properly, not learning new words that will help you communicate better in all aspects of your life just takes you and your language to cultural empoverishment.

Then we get upset when we go to hardware store or ironmonger (in queen's english) and we ask for a specific tool for its true name, and we get a dumb stare from the guy on the counter and we have to end describing it like a thingy with a pointed pin on a stem that slides in an out from a square piece of wood to mark parallel lines from the edge of a piece of wood.

Sorry guys but language issues do affect me rather deeply, and while I understand that none of us is expected to talk like shakespeare, I can't understand why some people in all countries including mine do not give importance to those issues.

I wish I could speak and read as many languages as I could, because honestly Shakespeare is thousand times better in its original english than translated into spanish just to put and example.:(
 
Who this Shakespeare be?

First day of Weather/ Climate class the teacher was discussing how he would take any cell phone that rang. His opinion was they should be turned to silent. Well this one young girl in the back stating to laugh. He she her why she was laughing and she said you can't have my phone, "I gots a babies at home." He turned and wrote "a babies" on the chalk board and ask her if that was plural or singular. She never came back.
 
We sent our eldest daughter to live in Canada and go to school, one reason is that she will become truly bilingual. We chat on Skype twice a week. In the summer, a few times, her new friend would be over when we were Skyping, and we got to chat with her too, but I found I was correcting her Canadian friend's English :eek: Holy cow, I could not believe how bad her English was, constant problems! Thankfully my dear mother is a former school teacher and she too constantly corrects our daughter's English. :thumb:
 
Rennie,
I agree with your rant 100%. I'm a backwoods boy that has worked very hard to make sure that I don't sound like a backwoods boy. It frustrates me when I'm reading a publication and find misspelled words, bad punctuation (which I'm still working on perfecting) and misused words.
 
Sitting in a fine restaurant and a fellow across the way has a baseball cap on (backwards). Not a wing joint but a sitdown steak house high end... Not a kid but a grayhaired adult type. Bugged me all night, then when leaving saw a kid with his hat sideways (that was OK because he obviously was an idiot)

I jest with my other post but it truely is a growing problem, No manners, no taste, "like" being rude is the "Like" the thing to do.... u-know that one-thing,

Was in Texas last spring, older "cowboys" tipped their hats when ladies passed by. Was a refreshing thing to see. My wife continues to comment about the experience. We were in Ft Worth, when we were in Dallas, it was rude as usual... What a difference a few miles make.

BTW, when was the last time you stood up when a lady came into the room?
 
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