Wednesday, February 25, 2009

grammar grudge

People, these days, are saying "never" when they should say, "did not."

"I never called you a hippopotamus today."

"I never ate the last rice krispie square."

or this one, actually heard on the radio:

"Authorities at Vancouver Airport never disciplined any of the staff involved in the tasering incident."

"Never" is for ever, a substantially long time. It is not for a single incident of not doing something, or even a day or a week, or even a year or more. It is for ever.

I wish people would just talk plain like thayre mamas larned them to.

question: why is this word worm stuck in my ear?

mompoet - getting my grumpies out before a happy day

2 comments:

Pearl said...

weird development.

Unknown said...

I "never" thought of that. (joke) Why is that we take a beautiful language and twist and turn the words?
Your post made me think of a discussion my brother and I had at the dinner table the other night about words. We had Cal puzzled because it must have sounded trival to others but it was important to my brother and me.