The picture montage at the end was striking, I wasn't really expecting that.

I also thought for sure this would be about Bill Clinton and "what the meaning of the word is is".

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

He seems very high to me.

I don't think I've EVER heard anyone say something like, "the problem is is Coke."

binglebongle, then watch the examples in the video again! It's all around you, you just haven't noticed yet.

He reminds me of someone on cocaine that I had a conversation with at a club. Knit-picking at the obscurities of language within a culture while making perfect sense.

This guy is about 1500 years too late trying to stop the evolution of the english language.

Upvote for admitting near the end that grammar errors are not the biggest problem in the world. That is is well done.

upvote for fdisk for admitting that this video admits that this isn't the biggest problem in the world

the music in this is perfect and i feel it really makes the whole thing come together nicely. that's it. i'm not feeling witty or sarcastic today.

Upvote for the problem montage. What the problem is is that the part before that was trite and unneeded. But good editing in that montage!!

>> ^MINK:
This guy is about 1500 years too late trying to stop the evolution of the english language.

What MINK meant to say is is is"What the problem is is that this guy is about 1500 years too late trying to stop the evolution of the English language"

He'll make a great English teacher someday.

Is he stoned? Sometimes smoking reaally good weed clears up your head.

I don't think he's right.

Grammatically? Yes he's correct.

But for me personally I use the is is just like any other word.

"Sometimes.....sometimes I just really wanna kill stupid people ya know?"
"The problem is....is that people don't have enough money.

It's a pause for me really, for dramatics, not because I think it's proper grammar.

Oh btw Upvote for someone not screaming or taunting everyone in the world about how stupid they are. I've seen enough videos where people freak out over little shit, nice to see someone chill about it.

I think it's rather annoying that people start to go for "ULULULU IT'S LANGUAGE EVOLVING" when they get things wrong.

Very well made clip.

^as darkhand said, it's not a mistake, it's emphasis.

another example: double negatives do not make a positive in Lithuanian, so who is "correct"? Oh, what's that you say? Lithuanian is the most archaic surviving indoeuropean language? Oh! Maybe we should all talk Lithuanian then instead of this new fangled "english" everyone is so crazy about.

You said "Very well made clip" ... look out for hyphenation, eh?

>> ^MINK:
^as darkhand said, it's not a mistake, it's emphasis.
another example: double negatives do not make a positive in Lithuanian, so who is "correct"? Oh, what's that you say? Lithuanian is the most archaic surviving indoeuropean language? Oh! Maybe we should all talk Lithuanian then instead of this new fangled "english" everyone is so crazy about.
You said "Very well made clip" ... look out for hyphenation, eh?


I have never claimed my English is perfect, just pointing out that rushing to the evolution defence is rather sad when one makes a mistake instead of actually admitting your mistake and trying to improve your preferred language.

And the comment on double negatives, I hope you were joking.

yeah, i was joking.
"improving" language means allowing it to evolve.

the "proper english" that grammar nazis defend is a snapshot in history. I don't know why they choose 1922 as the year to take their snapshot, but they seem to agree on it for some reason.

the joke is that the english they are defending is the result of hundreds of years of "mistakes", particularly in the era before writing, printing, or state education.

if you love english, you love mistakes. If you wanna be a grammar nazi, try learning lithuanian, you won't be the first linguist to admire its out-of-date mediaeval (medieval? mediæval?) standardised amish rigidity. The lithuanian word for computer screen literally translates as "viewgiver". Nobody uses it, they just lithuanicise "monitor" because "viewgiver" sounds so retarded.

Otherwise, here are some free Rules of Thumb for improving your writing skills. Most of them apply in other languages as well.
(from my pal Rootlesstree) :

1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat).
6. Always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also, too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments. No comma splices, run-ons are bad too.
11. Contractions aren't helpful and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should never generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands and abbreviations, etc.
18. One -word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is probably not the best way to propose earth shattering ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement.
34. Proofread carefully to see if you (have) any words out.

I've always heard that cocaine makes you unbelievably concentrated, but i never think i'd get to see it!

>> ^MINK:
yeah, i was joking.
"improving" language means allowing it to evolve.
the "proper english" that grammar nazis defend is a snapshot in history. I don't know why they choose 1922 as the year to take their snapshot, but they seem to agree on it for some reason.
the joke is that the english they are defending is the result of hundreds of years of "mistakes", particularly in the era before writing, printing, or state education.
if you love english, you love mistakes. If you wanna be a grammar nazi, try learning lithuanian, you won't be the first linguist to admire its out-of-date mediaeval (medieval? mediæval?) standardised amish rigidity. The lithuanian word for computer screen literally translates as "viewgiver". Nobody uses it, they just lithuanicise "monitor" because "viewgiver" sounds so retarded.


Aye, I have nothing against evolving either, but adding unnecessary is words doesn't really seem an improvement to me

I hope he does a video for "off of".

>> ^MINK:
yeah, i was joking.
"improving" language means allowing it to evolve.
the "proper english" that grammar nazis defend is a snapshot in history. I don't know why they choose 1922 as the year to take their snapshot, but they seem to agree on it for some reason.
the joke is that the english they are defending is the result of hundreds of years of "mistakes", particularly in the era before writing, printing, or state education.
if you love english, you love mistakes. If you wanna be a grammar nazi, try learning lithuanian, you won't be the first linguist to admire its out-of-date mediaeval (medieval? mediæval?) standardised amish rigidity. The lithuanian word for computer screen literally translates as "viewgiver". Nobody uses it, they just lithuanicise "monitor" because "viewgiver" sounds so retarded.



The funny thing is is that what may be improper grammar, now may be proper grammar in 50 years; but that still means it's improper now. Who knows how these things are truly decided: consensus, what goes in the dictionary, what people say on TV? Even if language is evolving, it's still more than worth knowing correct grammar- if only for the sake of intelligibility (and the sanity of grammar Nazis).

I know a guy who often uses words incorrectly and then when I call him on it he tells me "the english language is constantly evolving."

What about the apostrophes everywhere? These days people use an apostrophe at every opportunity. You see it most often in pluralization. The plural of "DVD" is "DVDs", not "DVD's"! I for one find it distracting to run into an unexpected apostrophe, because suddenly I'm wondering "The DVD is what?"

Here is the rule for when you can use an apostrophe to pluralize: Never.

damn tokers and their grammaticalese

I grew up in the days of "ain't is not a word" and lectures of the sort. Well, it's in the dictionary these days isn't it? Give it another generation or two and the "disapproved" bit will likely fade as well.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ain%27t

The only difference between being corrected for a "wrong" and starting a new ok or even right is the amount of time it's been done and how widespread it is. Compared to ebonics and valley speak which we all seem to have survived and which seem to have largely faded away this doesn't strike me as a threat to the language either. If people do like it who says we got to write the rules anyway? Language is what people use in the end, simple as that.

>> ^budzos:
I know a guy who often uses words incorrectly and then when I call him on it he tells me "the english language is constantly evolving."
What about the apostrophes everywhere? These days people use an apostrophe at every opportunity. You see it most often in pluralization. The plural of "DVD" is "DVDs", not "DVD's"! I for one find it distracting to run into an unexpected apostrophe, because suddenly I'm wondering "The DVD is what?"
Here is the rule for when you can use an apostrophe to pluralize: Never.



Actually DVD's is considered correct by some people as it indicates the omitted letters between the second D and the s. DVD(isc)s

But the worst I ever saw was Mar's Bar's. It's annoying because it shows people trying to use apostrophes and failing.

Of course, if we just used the genitive case properly these problems wouldn't exist... oh... we stopped using that. maybe you should all complain that people don't speak German properly.

@silma, what seems an improvement "to you" is completely irrelevant. And "unnecessary" words are absolutely everywhere in speech, but i don't see you trying to remove them all.

Actually DVD's is considered correct by some people as it indicates the omitted letters between the second D and the s. DVD(isc)s

Yeah these people are idiots. It's an Acronym, there are no missing letters. "D" stands for "disc". Would these people be correct to pluralize ATM with an apostrophe to make it clear that there are some missing letters in "Machines"?

(The answer is "No, they would be fucking morons.")

One toke over the line, sweet Jesus, one toke over the line.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

/Grammatically correct.

I thought people say "the problem is, is that" for the same reason they say "uh" or "uhm". I've never seen anyone write "the problem is, is that", only say it..

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