Fluency and accuracy Thursday, March 22, 2007
In this programme we talked with teachers and students about some examples of English which weren't actually grammatically correct but which were commonly said by native speakers.
We discussed whether it mattered, was it important always to be grammatically correct or was it sometimes acceptable to 'get it wrong'.
Language is in a consistent state of change. It's evolving and the way that people use it is changing. The teachers felt that although they wouldn't teach 'incorrect' forms it was important that students were aware that they can hear different versions and that it might not always be appropriate to be 'correct'.
Some students were keen to use accurate English, but others felt it more important to be natural in different situations, even if that meant using English which wasn't strictly correct.
Here are some of the sentences we looked at in the programme:
10 items or less (a sign in a supermarket)
'Item' is a countable noun, therefore 'less' is wrong here. It should be 'fewer'. However many native speakers use 'less' when 'fewer' is strictly correct. In everyday life when there is a clear context it probably doesn't matter as the meaning is clear, however there can be a subtle difference. Compare these two sentences:
The less people know about this the better
This sentence refers to the amount of information which is known.
The fewer people know about this the better
This sentence refers to the number of people who know about something.
I wish I was taller!
It's very common to hear sentences like this. I wish I 'were' taller is the grammatically correct form but it can sound strange as we don't normally put the subject 'I' with 'were'. It's not a strange exception to the laws of grammar but actually a subjunctive form rather than a simple past form.
My brother is taller than me.
This sentence sounds very natural but again it is not strictly grammatically correct. The 'correct' form is 'My brother is taller than I'. This is because this sentence is actually a shortened form of 'My brother is taller than I am'. Using the correct form can sound very formal and might not be suitable depending on to whom you were talking (or would you say 'who you were talking to'?)
Test your understanding with this quiz 
