AIBU to expect educational professionals to use correct grammar when talking to children?

[nofunanymore]

Everytime I hear a childminder, teacher or teaching assistant in a professional context using phrases like 'I seen it' or 'I done it', it totally grates on me. Is it the inevitable march of language, or am I justified in my annoyance?

I love regional accents but poor grammar is unacceptable.

Oh oh oh. I'm a teacher. The use of the phrase " I could of done that" sends me into orbit.

I really CANNOT stand it .......AND the kids sometimes don't understand what they have done wrong. AND, I have heard adults say it....my niece 24 years old, university educated says it.

Arrrrrrrgh

It does make me cringe as well and I am foreign so I quite understand how ennoying it can be for you.
I am at the moment having to correct DS2 an 3 who keep on saying things like : "can you pass me them pencils..."

Bringing up baby with two languages - and am very fussy about teaching him proper English (and German). So, yes - insist on proper English.

I have lived in Germany, Switzerland, England and Ireland and found that the UK teaching methods leave out large sections of grammar-based language training.

Yes, grammar can be boring, but getting the foundation right means an easier life later on. Proper use of grammar helps to understand other languages - and the (sorry if this offends anyone) Americanisation of English. I certainly hope that our son does not grow up speaking like a teenage 'dunderhead' - when he is like totally grown up.

PS - feel free to point out any bad grammar in this section - never to late to learn something new.

Message withdrawn

Yes, Could OF is one of my biggest hates too. LMAO at hyperbowl though. When I was doing my A-levels, a friend mispronounced it in that way, and until we left school he would be greeted with, in an American sports commentator voice, 'Weeeeeeeelcome to the hyperbowl.'

I have just realised what a bunch of geeks my friends and I were.

I work in teaching education and I am shocked by the grammar of the students that come through. It's appalling! Not only that, they seem to have no concept of register. They often send emails to me in text speak. It makes me worry for the future.....

sorry - that should have read "teacher education"

In reception last year, DD1 starting saying 'I need to go toilet'. I kept correcting her, then was in the classroom one day and heard her TA saying 'xx do you need to go toilet?'!!!

The other thing that drives me mad is saying 'haitch' for the letter H. DD1 is in 1H and says it all the time and now I'm having to correct DT2 as well - our surname starts with H and as there's another little girl with the same name as her, DT2 is now known as xx H. They were talking about this yesterday and DT2 said 'I'm xx Haitch'. I said 'no you're not, you're xx aitch'. She wouldn't have it - got v. upset and insisted she was xx 'Haitch'. AAAAAGH!

Where has this haitch thing come from? I clearly remember being taught it was aitch at school.

Yet I read somewhere, that both are now acceptable , not to me though

I'm confused about the dislike of the pronunciation of 'could of'. How do you know whether someone is saying 'could of' or 'could've'?

It's wrong to WRITE 'could of', of course, but when it's spoken, I don't know how you could tell the difference between that and 'could've', which is a perfectly acceptable contraction, as far as I'm aware.

I was talking about the writing of it

Isn't it could have, not could of.
It is haitch - not aitch!

Isn't it could have, not could of.
It is haitch - not aitch!

Ah fizzbuzz...well that IS wrong and also sends me into orbit!

It is not, and never has been, haitch.

It has always been aitch, at least in "correct" (ie formal, non-dialect) English.

p26, Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Mind you, my copy is from the 1990 edition. Has some change been put in place with retrospective effect in the last 18 years? Who decided? Haitch Arr Haitch? Haitch Emm Inspectorate of Schools?

And yes, "correct" English is itself a dialect - but the whole point of this thread is to give "correct" English privileged status, so let's not be pedantic, eh?

I agree with OP - I run a secondary teacher training course and have just criticised 2 trainees for using 'them' instead of 'these' or 'those' and rather than be embarassed at their poor grammar, they are astounded at my pettiness I think teachers should use correct grammar otherwise how will the kids learn? The other one that really irritates is 'can I lend a pen' grrr

totally agree - it has always been "aitch"

It's never 'could of' - that is mispronunciation of 'could have' or the contraction 'could've'.

Worst use of 'them' I have heard was 'what did them think' (i.e. rather than 'they)' (from a nursery key worker).

Saw a school newsletter with 'in all it's glory'. AARGGHHH.

Should there not be some kind of grammar test to work in education??? After that, I would definitely extend a compulsory grammar qualification to signwriters and printers, come the revolution...

totally agree with all the could have/ could of and you was/you were,etc,it grates on my nerves too . BUT my all time top cringe and scream at the telly one is......

(drum roll)

.....less - when it should be fewer

eg he has less sweets than me, or less people are doing blah blah blah nowadays

as an ex teacher myself i have some sympathy for the poor teacher or TA who is trying to scribble in little freddie's diary while keeping an eye on John at the other side of the classroom, looking to see who is giggling behind the craft table and answering a question from another child at the same time. when you have 30 noisy littlies distracting you and your pen is on autopilot it is SO easily done.

It's journalists, both in the papers and on the TV that really really really get my blood boiling.

yanbu isnit?

My teeth clenched when my son's otherwise lovely carer at nursery excitedly told me she'd taught him "ta" when he first started... despite hearing me always asking him to say "thankyou" and bye when we were leaving. Can't. bear. it.

It drives me mad. Because of the accent around here, when I say my dd's name people automatically think it should be spelt with an "h" and it IS not! Around here they do not pronounce the "H" in anything, and they think that's what im doing when I say her name!

It is spelt with an "A". End of.

Every year in Christmas cards people who I know and love stick a big fat H on the front of her name, even though it makes no sense and isn't a real name at all!

Do you think people who use grammar like 'he done it' or 'I want them ones', or who write things like 'on it's own' have any idea that they are incorrect, or just a bit lazy?

Not grammar, but I've got a real bee in my bonnet about a comment on DS's book review this week. His teacher gave an example and prefaced it with i.e. I would LOVE to correct it and send it back!

my boss, love her, is a great lady, has done wonders for herself and has a MSc and all sorts. But she was brought up in Tottenham and went to a secondary modern there that was pretty low grade (her reasons for it), and she still says "We was" rather than "we were", amongst other incorrect uses of the singular parts of the verb in conjunction with a plural pronoun. Every time she does it I feel a little pinprick of irritation and think she is letting herself and her professional image down by that error.