Top 5 myths of English grammar

Grammar fiends are everywhere! They are always quick to ‘correct’ our grammar, but when you find yourself ‘corrected’, ask yourself who they are to judge your grammar. Where does their knowledge of English originate from? More often than not, people who correct grammar make their judgements based on what they believe to be correct without actually having sufficiently studied the language. Here are the top five incorrect ‘corrections’ that you need to be aware of:

*A sentence cannot end in a preposition.

Was it not Winston Churchill who comically illustrated this point with “this is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put”? I think this ‘rule’ refers to using a preposition with a relative clause (‘with which’ in this case) rather than phrasal-prepositional verbs (‘to put up’ in the case). But putting the preposition at the end is a completely legitimate part of English syntax (even more so in its sister language, Dutch) and it is rather the style that governs its usage.

*A sentence cannot start with "and" or "but"

This practice has actually been around for centuries. Perhaps it is because they are classed as conjunctions that a misconception has arisen in the belief that they must join two (or more) independent clauses within one sentence. But no...(see what I did there?). They can join two or more ideas, not bound by full stops. Again, this boils down to style. I would do my utmost to avoid starting a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’ in a legal text, a technical manual or another situation requiring a formal style. Otherwise, if you want to personalise your text, or adopt a marketing approach, go for it!

*The passive voice is incorrect.

With its strictest spelling and grammar settings applied, Microsoft Word often puts a green squiggly line under any passive constructions.  However, they actually serve some very practical purposes. We may not know who the subject is in order to use the active voice, or we may want to place emphasis on the action rather than the agent.

*Contractions aren't appropriate in ‘proper’ English.

Humans have always sought ways to economise their spoken language. It’s particularly trendy amongst the youth nowadays to shrink adverbs, such as “totes” from totally. We have atrocious programmes like Made in Chelsea to thank for these. I don’t think this highly colloquial phenomenon will catch on to subsequent generations, in the same way that we don’t say ‘groovy’ anymore.

Nevertheless, contracted verbs did catch on in spoken language and we needed to reflect this change in writing. On the other hand, this grammar myth can ring true when it comes to style. We may write contractions, but only where the less formal context allows.

*‘Me and you’ is incorrect.

Ah, an interesting point. A few years ago, a friend of mine went to an Oxford University open day, where some of his peers ‘corrected’ his use of ‘me and you’ to ‘you and I’. Unfortunately for them, they were wrong:

We must look at the grammatical context in this case. Using two object pronouns (me/you) in the place of subject pronouns (I/you) is obviously incorrect, for example ‘me and him are going to the cinema’ instead of the grammatically correct ‘he and I are going to the cinema’, although the former is more acceptable in colloquial usage, but the linguists amongst us will continue to hold this contempt.

But there are those who hear ‘me and you’ without listening to the words that precede and follow it, automatically assuming that this set phrase (and similar ones involving her/him/them etc.) is incorrect.

Of course, these object pronouns are correctly used as...well...objects. And after prepositions too. So, phrases like ‘she is looking at you and me’ or ‘that present is for me and him’ are correct. Try replacing ‘me’ with ‘I’ in those sentences and you’ll see what I mean.

Let us remember that the English language, unfortunately, does not have a regulatory body unlike French and Spanish, so there is no single authority to tell us what is and is not ‘correct’. Most of these myths result from the disdain of one certain linguist towards a certain grammar point, who publishes his opinion and centuries later it is taken as the word of God. So, let’s take the time to analyse these so-called rules from now on, as we are in charge of our language, not the other way around.