To wonder why adverbs are disappearing?

[Sittingontopoftheworld]

‘He sings amazing.’
‘I eat healthy.’
‘He did really good in the challenge.’

Dear god, where have all the adverbs gone? Drives me nuts! If I pull my teen DC up on it, they roll their eyes and can’t accept they’re saying anything wrong. Surely they are not disappearing for good? I like adverbs!

Recently I've noticed a couple of folk saying they led on the bed.

what?

See also "Sorry for your loss". It's sorry "about". To be sorry for something means to pity it.

No, to be sorry for something means to regret something.

To be sorry for someone can mean to pity someone but it can also mean to feel sympathy towards someone.

Those words are still adverbs. ‘Adverb’ is just a label for a word with a particular grammatical function - there isn’t a magical list of ‘adverbs’ kept somewhere. Word classes are fuzzy categories and always have been, and language changes dramatically over time.

Samuel Johnson said that codifying language was like ‘chaining the wind’ (at least I think it was him). I’m an English teacher and teach what would be considered ‘proper’ English as a useful tool for communication - but it’s not necessary in all circumstances (e.g. when you’re chatting to your friends). Colloquialisms, different registers, slang, regional dialects/accents - these are the things that make language such an interesting topic.

People who are snobbish about usage (when context appropriate) tend to have a poor understanding of linguistics in my experience.

@BoneyBackJefferson

That’s brilliant - I may have to steal it

People who are snobbish about usage (when context appropriate) tend to have a poor understanding of linguistics in my experience.

This sentence should start with “In my experience”, not end with it. You’re welcome.

Can I just point out that we still use many phrases coined by Shakespeare!

• "For goodness sake" - Henry VIII
• "Neither here not there" - Othello
• "Mum's the word" - Henry VI, Part II
• "Eaten out of house and home" - Henry IV, Part II
• "Rant" - Hamlet
• "Knock knock! Who's there?" - Macbeth
• "All's well that ends well" - All's Well That Ends Well
• "With bated breath" - The Merchant of Venice
• "A wild goose chase" - Romeo and Juliet
• "Assassination" - Macbeth
• "Too much of a good thing" - As You Like It
• "A heart of gold" - Henry V
• "Puking" - As You Like It
• "Lie low" - Much Ado About Nothing
• "Dead as a doornail" - Henry VI, Part II
• "Not slept one wink" - Cymbeline
• "Foregone conclusion" - Othello
• "Obscene" - Love's Labour's Lost
• "Bedazzled" - The Taming of the Shrew
• "In stitches" - Twelfth Night
• "Addiction" - Othello
• "Naked truth" - Love's Labour's Lost
• "Faint-hearted" - Henry VI, Part I
• "Send him packing" - Henry IV
• "Vanish into thin air" - Othello
• "Swagger" - Henry V
• "Own flesh and blood" - Hamlet
• "There's method in my madness" - Hamlet
• "Wear your heart on your sleeve" - Othello
• "Spotless reputation" - Richard II
• "Full circle" - King Lear
• "There's the rub" - Hamlet
• "All of a sudden" - The Taming of the Shrew

Esspee, he does go to a school with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and does have friends of West Indian heritage, but I first noticed this kind of commenting on Twitter (usually white m/c people in their early twenties).

It can get worse. There is a car park in a local town and as you drive in there is a sign which proclaims:

'Follow Directional Signage'

Firstly, why doesn't it read 'Follow Direction Signs' and secondly, what is the point of a sign telling people to follow signs. if they aren't going to pay attention to the direction signs, they aren't going to read this one either, are they? Grrrr.

"Stand well back of the yellow line." I do find poor grammar annoying and contagious.

I'm a primary school teacher. We spend a lot of time teaching about using adverbs in writing but, yes, there is a change in speech patterns which means they are often missing from speech. However, producing good written work from poor spoken words has long been one of the challenges of teaching.

Is "bigly" an adverb?

Oh yes, train ones. The train I get has a sign that says “Press button when illuminated to open”.

I’m not sure what I’d change it to exactly but

Not being from the UK, I am always astounded that people on here can be so proper and upper class ie saying whilst instead of while (I've only seen 'whilst' on formal documents and in old Enid Blyton books), yet in the same post they would often write 'I was stood at' or 'I was sat on the floor'. When the correct way is "I was standing at" or "I stood at" (sans the 'was'). Or, "I was sitting on the floor" or "I sat" (again, sans the 'was').

It is the inclusion of 'was' and sat (both past tense so it is a double negative). Either is ok, e.g "I was sitting". OR "I sat". But not BOTH in the same sentence.

SaraNAde Not being from the UK, I am always astounded that people on here can be so proper and upper class ie saying whilst instead of while (I've only seen 'whilst' on formal documents and in old Enid Blyton books), yet in the same post they would often write 'I was stood at' or 'I was sat on the floor'. When the correct way is "I was standing at" or "I stood at" (sans the 'was'). Or, "I was sitting on the floor" or "I sat" (again, sans the 'was').

I believe its a throwback to Old Norse influence in northern English. Perhaps a linguist could clarify.

I personally blame Simon Cowell on Xfactor years ago ' Look, you did amazing tonight' etc. It's ALL his fault.

OP I love adverbs, so never fear, many of us will still fight the fight. I teach English and, whilst embracing Scots and our local, rich dialect, I aim to furnish the young people with good English to serve them in good stead.

I present to you ' jamp' and, my personal irritant ' my bad' ( fucking hell!)

'Why would x do that' or 'who does that' are both perfectly reasonable constructions - and in some languages, especially but not only languages descended from Latin, would be part of sentences using a subjunctive. It's harder to spot in English because we don't use the subjunctive very much, so we can't mark the verb as being part of those constructions.

'Why would someone do that' is part of a conditional, but the condition has been suppressed. Ie. The full construction would be something like 'Why would someone do that if they were not crazy'. The use of 'if' is what puts the other verb into the subjunctive (would do that, rather than did that/will do that), but you can use the would clause even if you've only implied the if half of the sentence. (This is possible in plenty of other languages too).

'Who does that' is what would usually introduce a generic subjunctive. What you are actually asking is 'What kind of person does that', not specifically who did it. In some languages descended from Latin (and Latin itself) you would combine the 'who' with the subjunctive form of does, to make it clearly indicate that you mean some indefinite person. In English, however, we haven't really got a subjunctive for 'do' so it's harder to spot - although you can see the difference between 'who does that' and 'who is doing that', which shows that there IS a subjunctive happening, even though we don't consciously identify it as such!

@SaraNade I always find ESL members of this forum so interesting. Mostly because I’d never be able to tell unless they say so.

My daughter is going to a Welsh speaking school because I strongly believe in the benefits of multilingualism. One of her nursery friends is attending the same school, at 4 he is fluent in both Portuguese and English (parents are Brazilian), I imagine by 6 he will have another language well under his belt.

In terms of writing style many guides advise reducing adverb usage. In the words of Stephen King 'I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. To put it another way, they’re like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day . . . fifty the day after that . . . and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it’s — GASP!! — too late.' www.brainpickings.org/2013/03/13/stephen-king-on-adverbs/

I also cannot stand the incorrect use of 'bring'. As in:
"I usually bring the baby into bed with me"

That's ok though,isn't it? 'Bring' indicates going and fetching something/someone. 'Take' indicates leaving the object/ person somewhere.

Needs washed,needs gone etc is very odd.

I miss 'to' as well.

My pet hate is "Can I get..." instead of "Can I have..."
DS says it all the time and I am always tempted to say "Off you go then, we are in Starbucks but you just pop round behind the counter and get your coffee"

Bring -take or go with (someone or something) to a place
So bringing a baby to bed is ok... I think?

I'm going off topic too, but I HATE when authors decide they be used she/he too much ( She decided, she went etc) and just take it put. So she decided something had to be done. Went to see what she could do. For goodness sake find another way to say it or overuse the word, don't just leave a word out!!!!

Do we still use "there's the rub" VikiD?

Given that the most famous line in English Literature would give most of the posters here nightmares, I think my point stands....

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a great fortune must be in want of a wife" (from memory so apologies if I've inadvertently paraphrased).

Hey nonny nonny!

Rees-Mogg insists that his staff must not put a comma after "and."

This is in a list of instructions that were reportedly composed by helpers in his Somerset constituence and, just in case you were wondering, also tell staff to use Imperial measurements.

oooops.

I have noticed 'wait on' being used more and more instead of 'wait for'.
Also 'hate on'. Where did the 'on' come from?