To ask where all these composite words have come from?

[Nunoftheother]

I'm intrigued as to where these have all suddenly (it seems) appeared from. They're absolutely rife on this site and Facebook, etc.

I'm thinking of "words" such as: alot, abit, inbetween, incase, infront, eachother and quite a few others. Is it just the same process as "maybe", "tomorrow", "today", etc.?

Another thing is the common confusion between "non" and "none" (i.e. "it's non [sic] of my business"), but I suspect that's a pronunciation issue a bit like "have" being confused with "of".

To the pp saying language evolves and none of this matters, our language isn't evolving, is devolving. Into nonsense. It does matter, because a block of text with no paragraphs or punctuation is incredibly hard to read.

I've got a broad regional accent and use particular abbreviations and words local to the region but it wouldn't occur to me to write like that

This. It's the difference between the spoken language and written language.

I suppose people use abbreviations because they are on a phone keyboard akin to textspeak but people usually understand the context in which they are using language and amend it accordingly. Equally people usually know the difference between dialect and standard language and amend what they use according to the audience.

But social media makes people lazy and they type all sorts of nonsense. I guess it feels more like talking than writing.

Another abomination is when people don't use a or an properly. As in, 'I saw a elephant today'.

That one does make my teeth itch.

@MissBaskinIfYoureNasty
@ElizaLaLa
FFS avoid Scotland then

‘Needs told’, ‘needs done’ etc. came from Scottish usage and have spread like the bloody pandemic.

The others come IMO from a less than perfect education and the fact that many people don’t read anything much that is well written.

I often used to see Wilko (when it was still Wilkinson’s) trucks emblazoned with, ‘Everytime!’

Haven’t seen that one anywhere else, though, and not for quite a while, so maybe there were complaints.

Fuck knows because most, if not all, devices have spellchecker which also corrects grammar.

Unfortunately in some cases the spellcheckers cause mistakes - my iPad seems overly fond of turning a possessive "its" into "it's", for example. I don't for a moment think that checkers are responsible for removing spaces after "a" in the first place, but on some systems if a person persistently types "alot" and the checker doesn't catch it (mine does), the damn thing may actually learn this new form.

I have a dodgy space bar on my keyboard and it often doesn't work when pressed. I'm sure I often post with words running in to each other although I do try to remember to check before I press 'post'.

‘Needs told’, ‘needs done’ etc. came from Scottish usage and have spread like the bloody pandemic.

Yep - it's an American on YouTube that was in my mind yesterday. It's just awful.

@MissBaskinIfYoureNasty

The only example here that I absolutely cannot stand is "he needs told". It sounds really ignorant.

It's not "needs told" that sounds ignorant tbf. May I recommend reading or listening to David Crystal? Or Scott Thornburg? Arguably the most important living linguist and English language teacher respectively, and see what their view on prescriptivism is?

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

‘Needs told’, ‘needs done’ etc. came from Scottish usage and have spread like the bloody pandemic.

The others come IMO from a less than perfect education and the fact that many people don’t read anything much that is well written.

I often used to see Wilko (when it was still Wilkinson’s) trucks emblazoned with, ‘Everytime!’

Haven’t seen that one anywhere else, though, and not for quite a while, so maybe there were complaints.

You don't care about correct punctuation though? Interesting.

@ElizaLaLa

To the pp saying language evolves and none of this matters, our language isn't evolving, is devolving. Into nonsense. It does matter, because a block of text with no paragraphs or punctuation is incredibly hard to read.

Nobody has said that punctuation and paragraphs don't matter. What's the subject of your "is devolving" btw? (And devolving isn't the opposite of evolving)

Those are all just flat out wrong. Bad grammar, incorrect spelling, the lot. Nobody’s perfect but it winds me up. It’s so basic.

What really annoys me is people dropping 'to be', like 'he needs told' or 'it needs changed.' Hate it

I am an English person living in Scotland. What you mention above is Scottish thing. There are also hundreds of words that are used here, that you wouldn't understand. I've been here for 18 years and I'm still learning!

What about the over usage of the word "like" ?

We don't write it down much, but just listen to anyone speaking these days and the "like" bomb is EVERYWHERE!

"And I was like, and she was like, and then I was like....." And it's not just here, it's Global.

Slight derailment but I’m the opposite, Scottish living in England, and round here (Midlands) “brought” is used interchangeably with “bought” both verbally and written, which drives me to completely apoplexy. Can someone please explain? It’s not part of the accent or dialect surely, it’s just sloppy and wrong.

@ReggieKrait

Slight derailment but I’m the opposite, Scottish living in England, and round here (Midlands) “brought” is used interchangeably with “bought” both verbally and written, which drives me to completely apoplexy. Can someone please explain? It’s not part of the accent or dialect surely, it’s just sloppy and wrong.

At least they're not saying "I brung him a biscuit"

A lot of people in this country are barely literate. "Alot" drives me absolutely bonkers, I can't stand it.

Another pet hate of mine is the phrase "one of the only". It makes no sense whatsoever. It's either "one of the few" or "the only".

One thing I have noticed is that the standard of written English on American forums is far higher than that on British ones. Is it a failure of our education system?

@contrmary I would turn into that massive fire monster god from Moanna if anyone said that in my vicinity 😂

It’s adults that are doing it though, not even kids! I read a lot as a child (all the time) which I think helps the brain automatically recognise language, and correct spelling and grammar.

Slight derailment but I’m the opposite, Scottish living in England, and round here (Midlands) “brought” is used interchangeably with “bought” both verbally and written, which drives me to completely apoplexy. Can someone please explain?

I was raised in the Midlands - this is absolutely not a regional thing!

@DameCelia gladly 👌

@Nunoftheother

I'm intrigued as to where these have all suddenly (it seems) appeared from. They're absolutely rife on this site and Facebook, etc.

I'm thinking of "words" such as: alot, abit, inbetween, incase, infront, eachother and quite a few others. Is it just the same process as "maybe", "tomorrow", "today", etc.?

Another thing is the common confusion between "non" and "none" (i.e. "it's non [sic] of my business"), but I suspect that's a pronunciation issue a bit like "have" being confused with "of".

I have never seen any of those “words” being used.

Can’t see these becoming standard English as the people who use them are outnumbered by those who don’t. I don’t see them on US social media (although maybe this is because of what I’m reading?) and they certainly aren’t the sort of errors non-native speakers make. These spellings always read as very British to me, and the British people writing in this way are a small percentage of English speakers globally.

I’d be interested to hear if others do see this from elsewhere, though, as I admit this is just a pet theory! I’m not very familiar with Irish SM so maybe it’s similar there?

Just because some phrases and words are based on dialect ('he needs told') that doesn't mean it is how they should be written. If that was acceptable we would all have to massively increase our vocabulary to be able to understand others' posts. Who would teach us all?

We would see Geordie phrases like 'larn' instead of learn and 'gannin' instead of going and 'noo' instead of now.

I watched Panorama last night where one couple from the Midlands (black country?) used words such as 'daint' (didn't) and 'wornt' (wasn't). I struggled to understand it when I heard it. It would be harder to understand when written down.

It would take so long to read posts if we had to decipher words written by people with different dialects from all over the nation. Thank goodness for education, punctuation and grammar.

I haven't noticed the compound words cited, but warn seems to have become pre-warn, book pre-book and transport is now mostly transportation - the last is from the US, no idea what caused the others.

@Lazypuppy

OP i'm confused, whats wrong with all the words in your post, you don't really explain

They're not words - they are two words stuck together.

And I think they're compound words, not composite.