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!

‘The boy done good’ is even better!

Of course there's the usual anti-Americanism on this thread (I'm not American)

Some of these, as Incredibly SadToo said, convey nuances of meaning. 'Hate on' is not the same as 'hate'. 'Hate' is to feel an emotion, 'hate on' is to perform that emotion publicly, largely on social media. 'Was sat' sometimes (not always) conveys a meaning of being subjected to an annoying situation not of one's own making, as in 'I was sat there like a lemon waiting for him'. That wouldn't work if you said 'I was sitting there like a lemon'.

And whatever is the matter with regional/dialect irregular past tenses? What makes 'brung' worse than 'sung', or 'jamp' worse than 'sat'?

'Who does that?' is fine - it refers to the use of 'does' to signal habituality - i.e. 'what kind of person does that sort of thing?' 'Why would he do that?' is similar.

I'm also not sure why a British speaker, assuminbg 'momentarily' is understood in that usage ('in a moment') by American speakers, have any more right to tell those American speakers they're using it wrongly* than vice versa.

*Which reminds me, going back to the original topic, that we use adjectival forms only with some verbs. Nobody says 'You're doing it wrongly'. It's 'You're doing it wrong',

Sorry. HAS any more right. The irony.

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

I wonder if he meant to make an exception if the "and" is followed by a subordinate clause? I think that's an entirely appropriate exception.

I also saw that he insists on the use of "Esquire", without making an exception for surgeons, who are always Mr.

www.itv.com/news/2019-07-26/itv-news-exclusive-jacob-rees-mogg-issues-style-guide-to-staff/

Something I see a lot on MN and social media is if I would have passed the exam/gone out for coffee/told her off, which makes zero sense. Where has the would come from?

Some of the previous examples mentioned are regional. Here in Bristol they say "I was led on the bed". It's bizarre, but a regional thing. See also "where's it to?" , shortened to "to?" , and The Asdawl, that well known shop.

Similarly the "it needs washed" was something my then-boyfriend's Glaswegian family used to say back in the late 70s.

DS2 says "can I get?", which is so grating, and sounds really pretentious.

I forgot a couple. Another MN favourite is being angry at someone, rather than with them.

MIL always says presently as well, which never sounds right, as in "we'll be over presently".

Yes - 'quick' instead of 'quickly' particularly irritates me - if they want a short word why not say 'fast'?

You must have seethed if the pre-school taught Miss Polly had a Dolly! Surely quick instead of quickly has been around for decades eg the Blackpool Kiss me Quick hat.

Something I see a lot on MN and social media is if I would have passed the exam/gone out for coffee/told her off, which makes zero sense. Where has the would come from? What would you say then ?

Thank you, catte re. ‘I was sat’ as I have written ‘I was stood’ in something recently and was beginning to think I should go back and edit! It is where an annoying situation is being referred to...

I can’t stand food being described as good - “the cake is so good!”- really makes me cringe. The cake tastes nice but doesn’t behave well.
Lots and lots of things make me cringe though.

‘Can I get?’ sounds rude and arrogant to me.

‘If I would have passed’ etc drives me nuts and confuses my brain at the same time.

'Good' doesn't only have the meaning 'well-behaved' (or 'morally virtuous'), though! 'Good things' to refer to nice food is as old as the hills - see the biblical Magnificat: 'Thou hast filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.'

I suspect the 'if I would have' may be interference* from international speakers of English, from native languages whose conditional forms include a repeat of the equivalent of 'would'.

*Not meant in a negative sense at all - in case it wasn't obvious from my posts that I'm a descriptivist :)

If I had to guess it's a combination of the casualisation of language and the influence of American tv/movies etc.. Adverbs are simply not used in the States to my ongoing horror!

I agree with most of the previous comments; personally, I regret the slow death of the semi colon and try to use it wherever possible.

One of my pet hates is the way that estate agents now , as a matter of routine it would seem, describe houses "comprising of" three bedrooms/ reception rooms etc; that's a bit like saying " revert back" or "enter in" which I cannot fucking stand. Ditto "continue on".

Yes language evolves and nobody speaks in Chaucerian middle English anymore, but that doesn't mean we need to speak and write like morons.

Pepperpot, as a writer I ADORE the semi colon; it’s just so useful!

'Comprise of', while incorrect, isn't tautological. It's people confusing 'consist of' with 'comprise'.

I thought 'presently' was fairly old-fashioned usage; seem to recall it being in a number of (older) books I read as a child.

(Yes, another semi-colon fan)

I actually overuse the semi colon, I love it so much.

Although more usual in spoken language, in some cases, bad grammar can be vernacular rather than anything else. For example: “I’m after naming her Georgina” is obviously incorrect, where one would expect to hear “I’ve named her Georgina” but a very common way of speaking in Ireland.

Jude, I wouldn't call that example incorrect or bad grammar, it's more of a different way of thinking about things that expresses itself in language: not 'I have done this' but 'here I am after I have done this'. I think I remember reading it had something to do with grammatical structures in Irish (I know next to nothing about Irish so don't know if that's correct).

YANBU.
But 'needs done' etc is normal colloquial grammar in Northern Ireland (maybe in the south too?) and another poster mentioned also in Scotland.

Oh damn x post

Something I see a lot on MN and social media is if I would have passed the exam/gone out for coffee/told her off, which makes zero sense. Where has the would come from?

What would you say then ?

If I had passed the exam/gone out for coffee/told her off.

Listening to TV I wonder if the sound TH will survive. It used to be very London to say wiv rather than with but I hear it in so many accents now among young users.

AlexaAmbidextra

Oh,I see what you mean,I didn't realise at first and got confused. I haven't seen that before ,I'll be grateful for small mercies