English needs learned

[single]

What on earth is up with people taking "to be" out of sentences?

Needs painted.

Needs fixed.

Needs washed.

More like needs grammar.

Discuss

[Lone Star]

my linguistics needs studied.

but who needs copula anyway?

[From_the_NEK]

changing the "ed" to "ing" works too.

[knumbskull]

This is a pet peeve of mine. I think it is a regional thing. Whatever it is, their grammar needs fixed.

[concretejungle]

Montucky?

[knumbskull]

More than you ever wanted to know about grammar:

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/edu...r/needs-washed

It appears to be concentrated around the upper midwest.

[From_the_NEK]

It appears to be concentrated around the upper midwest.

If that's the case then it is "needs warshed" in MN.

[Benny Profane]

It's the ebonics of rap music seeping into our language by way of beats headphones.

[char]

What on earth is up with people taking "to be" out of sentences?

Needs painted.

Needs fixed.

Needs washed.

More like needs grammar.

Discuss

Language entrance requirements at MSU have declined?

[Bunion 2020]

^^^ maybe the don't give a fuck factor has escalated.

Or,

Don't give a fuck needs applied.

[abraham]

This isn't a vahishkaran spam thread????

[jm2e]

My cack needs relieved.

[stfu&gbtw]

Pennsyltucky... lived south of Harrisburg for about a year a long time ago. That's the first I'd heard it. No idea if that's from where it originates.

[huckbucket]

My cack needs relieved.

lololololol's

[frorider]

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/this-sink-needs-fixed/

Blame the Scots.

I hear this construction sometimes on the east coast.

[single]

Language entrance requirements at MSU have declined?

Current entry requirements are comprised of checking for pulse and receiving a shot for bacterial meningitis.

I've been googling car stuff lately and it seems like everyone uses this vernacular.

Apparently, being from Scottish descent, I only have myself to blame. Is that why it bothers me so much?

[assman]

to be or not to be...

[KQ]

I know this recent article addresses spelling and not grammar it certain fits in a "language arts" discussion. What do you think? Being old and set in my ways I'm inclined to say "get off my lawn!"


Group wants simplification of irregularity

Now, you want to do something about spelling?

Now, after a lifetime of me whiffing on height, weight, presence, attendance and maintenance, something called the International English Spelling Congress is hot to streamline the rules?

Now, in the age of spellcheck and autocorrect, we are finally shedding light on the darkness that is “i” before “e” and its many exceptions?
Where were you when I needed you?

The proposed congress wants the spelling of English words to have at least some semblance of order.

The chaos is clear. We not only have trouble spelling a word after we hear it but also struggle with how to say the word after we read it.
According to the English Spelling Society, the language is as irregular as a $2 pair of Levis.

The math alone is daunting: English rocks about 44 sounds, but instead of having them represented with about the same number of spellings as they would in, say, Korean or Finnish, English uses 185 spellings.

That can confuse the speller and the speaker ... ergo, the reader and the listener.

Face it, literates: Though, through, cough, rough and bough can break a phonetic heart and mind. So, too, can skate, weight, straight, break, rein and later.

With 69 English spellings sporting more than one pronunciation, more than 2,000 words are outside the system, which, frankly, means learning about the same number of exceptions as rules.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an irregular language ... with consequences.

The U.S. Labor Department pegs taxpayers as picking up a $25 billion tab annually because of workplace accidents and lost productivity caused by illiteracy.

Children in Great Britain are no better spellers than their parents. Other research indicates that children learning their native English take up to three years longer to master it than their counterparts tackling an alphabet-based language.

Night screaming

Nor is the IESC alone.

The Spelling Society’s website lists Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Lord Tennyson, Mark Twain and Teddy Roosevelt as among those who believed our spelling codes were in need of simplification.

From what I’ve read, no one wants wholesale changes but rather believes alternative spellings (some of which may become acceptable on their way to being preferred) would ease the spelling, writing, reading, speaking, listening — indeed the acquisition — of the language.

In such a future, you might see wate, strate and rane alongside weight, straight and rein. Obviously, IESCers will need to explain to us, too, how simplification will dovetail with homophones and not send lexicographers screaming into the night (not to be confused with long “i” sound of site, diet, sign, pyre, climb, eider, island and the aforementioned height).

Coff, ruff

According to a delightful piece in “The Week” from Arika Okrent, sometimes the problem is a mistake in a word’s lineage, from a lost letter to a misguided etymologist.

“Scissors,” for example, was “sissors” before someone mistook its origin; an “s” was added to “island” when it was determined, incorrectly, that the word came from Latin (“insula”) instead of Old English (“iglund”); and “could” was “coud” until — gasp! — uniformity insisted we add an “l” as in its past-tense cousins “would” and “should.”

Meanwhile, millions of Millennials are shrugging, having grown up with some sort of mechanical techservant to correct whatever woes are brought on by an irregular spelling system.

Take it from an average speller, they have a point.

They will also be happy to know that at least one research study in Great Britain indicates texting and cyberspeak cause no discernible language deficiency in children.

Still, as the Spelling Society argues, a language difficult to spell can slow learning in every area.

Besides, what’s the problem in using coff for cough or ruff for rough or naybor for neighbor?

As long as you include them in my spellcheck dictionary.

[jm2e]

Didn't read what KQ said. But from my extensive experience on the inter-webz, I'd usually err toward poor grammar with brevity over many many words.

[Name Redacted]

I know right?

[creaky fossil]

What on earth is up with people taking "to be" out of sentences?

Needs painted.

Needs fixed.

Needs washed.

More like needs grammar.

Discuss

what... are you in Pittsburgh area, Ohio Valley area? what do you have against the ancient Celts and their linguistic shortcuts?

"car needs washed" or "floor needs swept" is Yinzer. might could be a Welsh immigrant thing. ask this Q in the O Valley they'll say you're carrying coal to Newcastle.

[digitaldeath]

time is money, dummy

[GeezerSteve]

What on earth is up with people taking "to be" out of sentences?

Why require the infinitival copula when conveyance of the speaker's intent is not impaired by its omission? http://microsyntax.sites.yale.edu/needs-washed

What is your view on the Star Trek split infinitive?

And why do you say "what on earth is up with people taking [ ] out. . . " when your question would be more effectively communicated by saying "why do people omit. . . ?"

[creaky fossil]

Why require the infinitival copula...?

waste time goin' dahntahn see Stillers play Brahns hit Dirty O hit Primantis good times don't waste time

my pressing Q for Yinzerspeak is why add a "u" in the word "macho" to make it "maucho"?

[AK47bp]

Yinz jus want me-da bring dem bers dahn’nair that picnic group so yew en all yer nebby friends can get all boozed up n’at. Take a shaur put a gum band in yer hair hop the jagger bush at yer mums hause an head dahn na game. Met up with Geno and Chucky dahn tha triple deuce fer sum cold Irns before headin aht