Language Skills Continue to Decline

It has been observed that the language skills among young Americans continue to decline and even ordinary folks notice it. Many are already beginning to voice out their concerns. George Orwell was a visionary when he posited this fact in an essay he wrote in 1946 called “Politics and the English Language” where he said that people’s language skills are declining and it is not something that could be reversed.

In response to a column in a newspaper, a reader contributed that their CEO sent them an email reminding his shop workers about their “union due’s.” That’s right, it was written that way, with an apostrophe before the “s.”

Confusion and interchanges

The columnist, Stephen Wilbers, who conducts effective business writing seminars, says that he is appalled by the lack of knowledge of many people today. He questions if these people who continue to make errors when writing in English, actually learned English at school. “It makes me crazy to see errors in simple everyday words, such as their, they’re and there, as well as in your and you’re.” Many people are confused on which one to use when constructing sentences.

Not confined to ordinary people

Errors in the use of pronouns and pluralization are not only common in ordinary folks. Mistakes are also made by companies. But who is to be blamed for such errors? Like a company with a name written as “Certified Pro’s” and those that advertise their ”taco’s” instead of “tacos.”

Is poor grammar today’s norm?

The contributor of the last comment was asking if people do not care for poor grammar anymore and wonders if the norm in today’s world is to use poor grammar. English grammar and sentence construction have many rules to follow, which could be a contributor to the use of the wrong pronouns, just like in the case of when to use “I” and when to use “me.”

According to the Oxford Dictionary, this is the proper way to use me and I, both of which are personal pronouns:

• You use “I” and other subjective pronouns like you, they, he, she and we, when the pronoun is the verb’s subject. You also use the pronoun “I” when “I” is the subject of the sentence.

• “Me” is used together with other objective pronouns like them, you, us, her and him, when the pronoun is the object of the verb. You also use “me” when the pronoun is the object of the preposition.

• One easy way to check if you have chosen the correct pronoun is when the sentence reads properly even if you were to remove the other noun.

The confusion could have stemmed from the fact that children have been taught that using the pronoun “me” is not correct and that it should always be replaced with “I.” There are people who blame the teachers for the error because they do not correct the usage and maybe because the teachers themselves use it that way. A teacher believes that the relaxation in English grammar rule follows the current trend of businesses adopting a dress code that is more casual.

Whatever the real reason, it is a sad fact that the downward projection of the language skills, which was quite gradual in the past 10 years has suddenly accelerated, thereby causing poor language skills to be everywhere.

Image credit: Dictionary by Zoshi under Public Domain.