Word Pfun

www.thepublicreader.com | home

An Essay.

WORD PHUN

BY Jim Kittelberger

When did the elusive verb saw, the past tense of see, go missing? I think it has been several years since I last saw it. In its place, the verb seen has taken over. Now seen is a perfectly good word, I like it, but it should know its place. It's been a few years since I was in school, but I was taught to conjugate verbs. It was standard instruction in grade schools in the forties and fifties. It went like this. I see. I saw. I have seen. Seen needed a helper, it is not one of those words that stand-alone. But today, now you listen, how many times do you hear, I seen it. That is not right.

Now the English language may not be as melodious as French, but it is the language used by the majority of the world, and as such, a little care should be taken to speak it properly. I have talked to some teachers about this corruption of the language and they are aware of it. Why then I ask, is it not being corrected? I think, perhaps, some of the younger teachers use the same bad English. If that is not so, why then do I read books that are supposed to be edited by educated people, being printed with incorrect English? I think maybe some editors don't know incorrect English when they see it.

Perhaps you are saying, so what. Who cares? I, for one. I cannot stand the corrupting of our language and it's substitution of mongrelized words. Slang is fun when we know it's slang, but I think more people than I care to guess, don't know the slang from the correct word.

I suppose it is more of the, in your face, if you don't like it, so what, attitudes of today. It is egalitarianism gone too far, when the young people aim down instead of up, in their use of the English language. The French love their language, we perhaps, should learn to love ours maybe just a little bit more.


	www.thepublicreader.com \| home LISTEN \| CSPAN American Writer Series \| Book Reviews \| \| THE PUBLIC READER'S PUBLIC SQUARE \| America's New Role Models \| \| SHORT STORIES \| The Village \| bridge from a snowy place \| The neighborhood eight and A. jones \| nightsounds \| The Birdman of Carter's Lake \| Neverland \| Photographs \| Saved by Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald \| The Loneliness of the Late-Night Donut Shop \| ________________________________________________ \| A NOVELETTE \| An Eternity Together: A Romantic Fantasy \| Part I \| Part II \| Part III \| Part IV \| Part V \| Part VI \| _________________________________________________ \| POETRY \| Poetry of Jim Kittelberger \| I Knew You But A Moment \| Obsolete \| Rain \| I Thought About Death Today \| The Spiders Web \| The Midnight Train \| Fathers, Sons and Grandsons \| Be A Man, They Say \| When I Daydream \| \| Poetry of Jeff Kersh \| Coffee Shop \| Lost In War \| The Soldier \| Poetry of Jerry Vilhotti \| Masters Poetry \| World Poetry Audio Library \| __________________________________________________ \| CHILDREN'S TALES \| a special creation \| Professor Knowitall's Magnificient? Invention \| the ring \| whiffers \| Farmhouse Fables \| Aesop's Fables \| Bedtime-Story \| ____________________________________________________ \| INTERACTIVE-HANDS ON CHILDREN'S STORIES \| Bones \| Sad Samantha, The Sparrow \| ____________________________________________________ \| ESSAYS \| Word Pfun \| On The Road Again \| Baseball, I Love It \| Retirement Plans \| A Daughters Eulogy For Her Father \| Hometown-an essay \| a retired man's period of adjustment \| ____________________________________________________ \| MASTER STORYTELLERS \| JEAN SHEPHERD \| When Schwartz wiggled his ears, that was history \| \| ART \| American art by American masters \| American Artists in the Twenty-First Century \| Tom Sierak \| Chamel Raghu \| Illustrators \| Maxfield Parrish \| N.C. Wyeth \| J.C. Leyendecker \| ____________________________________________________ \| AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY \| DECADE BY DECADE FROM KINGWOOD COLLEGE LIBRARY \| The Nineties \| The Eighties \| The Seventies \| The Sixties \| The Fifties \| The Forties \| The Thirties \| The Twenties \| 1910-1919 \| 1900-1909 \| _____________________________________________________ \| DIVERSIONS AND DELECTATIONS \| Cal's Gallery Plus \| Chess \| Country Life \| Crosswords \| Daily Computer Tips \| Duct Tape Press \| Free Library of Classics \| Friends of The Public Reader \| Heroes \| Humor \| Strange Breed \| Suddenly Senior \| Religious Cartoon \| The Irascible Professor \| Let me think about this \| Links to sites you'll enjoy \| Nostalgia \| A Little Shakespeare \| The Radio Page \| Singleminded \| Tom Paine.com(mon) sense \| World Net Daily \| \| Submissions and Feedback An Essay. WORD PHUN BY Jim Kittelberger When did the elusive verb saw, the past tense of see, go missing? I think it has been several years since I last saw it. In its place, the verb seen has taken over. Now seen is a perfectly good word, I like it, but it should know its place. It's been a few years since I was in school, but I was taught to conjugate verbs. It was standard instruction in grade schools in the forties and fifties. It went like this. I see. I saw. I have seen. Seen needed a helper, it is not one of those words that stand-alone. But today, now you listen, how many times do you hear, I seen it. That is not right. Now the English language may not be as melodious as French, but it is the language used by the majority of the world, and as such, a little care should be taken to speak it properly. I have talked to some teachers about this corruption of the language and they are aware of it. Why then I ask, is it not being corrected? I think, perhaps, some of the younger teachers use the same bad English. If that is not so, why then do I read books that are supposed to be edited by educated people, being printed with incorrect English? I think maybe some editors don't know incorrect English when they see it. Perhaps you are saying, so what. Who cares? I, for one. I cannot stand the corrupting of our language and it's substitution of mongrelized words. Slang is fun when we know it's slang, but I think more people than I care to guess, don't know the slang from the correct word. I suppose it is more of the, in your face, if you don't like it, so what, attitudes of today. It is egalitarianism gone too far, when the young people aim down instead of up, in their use of the English language. The French love their language, we perhaps, should learn to love ours maybe just a little bit more. Copyright Jim Kittelberger 2001. All Rights Reserved.