Well, maybe it was 99.

I have often wondered what English teachers do over here, as teaching spelling and grammar doesn't seem to be one of them. I think our language is evolving right back to the mid-1800s and beyond where people spelt things phonetically; words that are pronounced the same but different spellings, thus meanings, seem the worst offenders and the word "their" should soon be removed from the dictionary from lack of use in favour of "there";  "They're" is struggling to remain in existance too.

US kids I've noticed are struggling to tell the difference between add and ad. But the list continues regularly with  hear/here,  no/know, break/brake, too/to, your/you're.  Only recently on Poe was "busses" ( no such word) instead of buses. See Motorway's thread.

It's one thing for a language to evolve---a word like teacher where the e used to be silent and a pronounced, then reversed to pronounce the e with the a silent,  and being turned into  complete shambles by using any old word, as long as it's pronounced the same.

And what is getting more common in speaking seems to be raising the pitch at the end of a sentence turning it into a question.  Very noticable on Radio Berkshire with people on the phone on their programmes.  So, why are sentences/statements regularly being turned into questions by this new manner of speaking, especially with women, and men now and again? 

So, somthing like --We raised £500 for charity over the weekend gets pronounced to say---We raised £500 for charity over the weekend? 

UR rite, ruth (see, no capitalization) 2 many changes 2 R language, both written and verbal. 

The use of profanity is increasing too. What used to be unacceptable when I was a child, can now be found in Disney movies. I hate it! 

I agree, Sue.  It seems anything goes, nowadays.  (Is that a word? lol)

Paul, yes, speech is also deteriorating.  Instead of teaching people how to speak intelligently, they dumb everything down, ya know?

(Ya know - (cringe) - really bugs me when people end every sentence with it).

I went on a day long training course yesterday where the instructor repeatedly over and over all day added "yeah?" to the end of countless sentences.  Might be ok once in awhile, but we had 6 hours of this "yeah?" over and over and over...........something like------

None of us like going shopping usually, yeah? And then we often find we take ages finding a parking place, yeah?  So, the last thing we want when we get to the shops is xxxxxx, yeah?  and on it went all day.

Effectively, he was asking for your agreement with nearly every sentence he spoke. Occasionally switched to  Ok? to give us a break from Yeah?

My dad was Welsh and a teacher, and he specialised in English. He taught at A level and above. The old boy has been dead for over 25 years now but I shudder to think what he would make of the way this wonderful language of ours is abused these days. I'm not perfect by any means but it really grates on me when people cannot get the simple things right. Where and were, is and are, the list goes on. There is nothing with speaking and writing your own native language correctly.

Agreed, Dave.

Paul, that would have driven me up a tree!

James said it, not me, Ron!

James, Know what I mean (wink, wink, say no more, know what I mean?)  lol