A man after my own heart, Peter Turner, has been in touch in despair about the “current trend of butchering our wonderful English language by the use of, eg, ‘myself’ instead of ‘me’ or ‘I’. I’m sure the origins of this go back to David Beckham (who I admire greatly) talking about ‘myself and Victoria’. We should be proud of our heritage of which our English language is an important part. If we lose it, it will be gone for good,” writes Peter.
We are at one on this. I know I have thumped this tub a number of times in the past but there is no room for complacency. Let us not forget the correct expression “I/you/he/she/it/we/they could have” which is never, ever interchangeable with “could of”. No-one can “of”. You need a verb in order to do things (Miss Spooner, Northgate Grammar School for Girls c.1966).
Likewise “like” as in “I was like: ‘no way’ and he was like ‘way’. So many problems here but, once again, the useful verb to employ would be the past tense of “to say”.
Innit.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here