English
Posted: February 22nd, 2020, 1:43:18 pm
Since religion and other volatile topics are permitted here, it should be perfectly fine to speak about a language and its uses, as well as misuses.
Everyone who has graduated high school should be well aware of everything that is said below, so it should be nothing more than a nice refresher. Everyone who ignored their English classes, on the other hand, should come out of this with a new or fresh understanding of how the English language works.
We'll start simple, with the exact sentence that my own English teacher used back in the day:
"Let's eat grandma"
In this sentence, you are saying to eat the grandmother. That wouldn't be very nice to the grandmother, now would it? Let's add a little something.
"Let's eat, grandma"
Now, instead of saying to eat the grandmother, you're talking to the grandmother and saying to eat togather. The meaning of the very same sentence was entirely changed with nothing but a small comma added.
That's quite the drastic difference for one little comma. The difference can be the same, or even larger, when a word or words are added to a sentence. Let's take a look at a pair of sentences that tend to be treated exactly the same even though they are very different:
Sentence 1
"You're an idiot"
Sentence 2
"You're acting like an idiot"
Now, in the first sentence, you are clearly saying that the person you're speaking to is of lesser intelligence. However, in the second sentence, you are telling the person you're speaking to to not behave in a way that a person of lesser intelligence would behave. The key difference here is that the word "acting" is used in sentence two. That word is used to refer to a behavior that is not true of the person. Let's delve a little deeper into this word, shall we?
"He's acting the fool"
This can be seen in a few different ways, depending on context. For now, let's assume that you're saying this while watching a play. You are speaking about the person who is playing the role of the fool on stage. The person is acting silly, as his role requires.
Now let's change the context to something more familiar. This time, you're in a classroom. The sentence would be taken as saying that someone is acting like a fool, which is usually done in order to gain the attention of other children or teenagers.
Changing the sentence a little, let's see what the new meaning becomes:
"He's acting like a fool"
This wording is much more common for a classroom setting, no? However, the meaning of the sentence has stayed the same. You are saying that someone is acting, or behaving, like a fool. This means that the person in question is behaving foolishly. Let's alter the wording a little more:
"He's such a fool"
Now, you are saying that the person you're talking about is unwise. The one simple word, "acting," made a large impact on the meaning of the sentence.
Let's change things up a bit.
Some words have various meanings, all entirely different. One such word is "spirit." It can be used in many different ways, though you'll likely only hear two of the meanings without delving deeper into the word. Three of the meanings are or relate to soul, emotion and alcohol.
Since we're talking about language, let's focus on the second of the meanings listed. The most common usage is found when speaking of sports while watching them perform.
"Those girls have so much spirit!"
For this sentence, let's say that you're watching a group of cheerleaders. By stating that they have a lot of spirit, you are saying that they are vigorous and lively in their cheers. By replacing "Those girls" with "They," you could be talking about a football team, or any other sports team, that's playing strong. Even if the team is losing the match, they can be showing spirit by not giving up.
Now let's apply the same word in another way:
"His spirits are low"
What this sentence means is that the person you're talking about is not feeling very well. Not that they are ill in some way, but that they are emotionally spent. Having low spirits tends to mean that someone is going through a difficult time and just doesn't want to put any effort or energy into anything.
Another way to apply this word is as such:
"In the spirit of-"
Countless words can come after "of" for this sentence. The most common sentence you'll see this application of the word "spirit" is "In the spirit of Christmas" in almost all Christmas movies. In those movies, Christmas is all about sharing and spreading love and kindness. So really, when you hear "the spirit of Christmas," you are hearing "the spirit of love and kindness." What this means is that being kind and loving is encouraged. However, because "Christmas" is the word used in the sentence, this application for "spirit" tends to only be valid during the winter holiday.
"In the spirit of kindness"
By replacing the word "Christmas" with "kindness," we are now talking about acts of good will. Donating money to an animal shelter, giving food to a homeless person, giving a poor child a new toy, or complimenting someone are all acts of kindness. There are countless ways to show kindness. The use of the word "spirit" when applied in such a way is to embody the meaning of a word.
If a word has no emotion tied to it, "spirit" is not able to be properly used. Let's look at an example of this:
"The spirit of the instructions"
Now, "instructions" are not things that have emotions tied to them. Let's say that you're in math class for this example. Your teacher has instructed you to calculate the area of a triangle. Let's say that you complete your calculations faster than the rest of the class and begin doodling on your paper to pass the time; Because you're doodling instead of doing more calulations, your teacher tells you that you're ignoring the spirit of the instructions. Doesn't make much sense, right?
Let's change the sentence a little to make this sentence work:
"The spirit of learning"
Using the same math class example as above, your teacher walks up on you doodling and says that you're ignoring the spirit of learning. In this sense, "spirit" implies the will to learn. The will to learn is an eagerness to improve, with eagerness being the key emotion. By ignoring the spirit of learning, you are ignoring your ability to get better than you already are and are instead focusing on something else entirely.
There are many words that get misued in the English language. Listing all of them would likely take days or even weeks, so I'll keep this simple.
The most common word to get misused, from my own experience, is "a lot." Countless people use "alot" when they are talking about there being many of something. However, "alot" is not a word. Without the space between "a" and "lot" the word is supposed to be "allot" which is used when giving something for a specific purpose. Let's view a couple examples:
"There are a lot of balloons"
This sentence is saying that there are numberous, or many, balloons.
"Each farmer was alloted an acre of land."
What this sentence means is that each farmer was given an acre of land.
With the world becoming more and more virtual, with less people interacting in person, the English language is becoming more misused by the day. Personally, I find this disappointing and discouraging, since the language is capable of so much when used properly.
How do you view the English language and how it is used, as well as misused?
Everyone who has graduated high school should be well aware of everything that is said below, so it should be nothing more than a nice refresher. Everyone who ignored their English classes, on the other hand, should come out of this with a new or fresh understanding of how the English language works.
We'll start simple, with the exact sentence that my own English teacher used back in the day:
"Let's eat grandma"
In this sentence, you are saying to eat the grandmother. That wouldn't be very nice to the grandmother, now would it? Let's add a little something.
"Let's eat, grandma"
Now, instead of saying to eat the grandmother, you're talking to the grandmother and saying to eat togather. The meaning of the very same sentence was entirely changed with nothing but a small comma added.
That's quite the drastic difference for one little comma. The difference can be the same, or even larger, when a word or words are added to a sentence. Let's take a look at a pair of sentences that tend to be treated exactly the same even though they are very different:
Sentence 1
"You're an idiot"
Sentence 2
"You're acting like an idiot"
Now, in the first sentence, you are clearly saying that the person you're speaking to is of lesser intelligence. However, in the second sentence, you are telling the person you're speaking to to not behave in a way that a person of lesser intelligence would behave. The key difference here is that the word "acting" is used in sentence two. That word is used to refer to a behavior that is not true of the person. Let's delve a little deeper into this word, shall we?
"He's acting the fool"
This can be seen in a few different ways, depending on context. For now, let's assume that you're saying this while watching a play. You are speaking about the person who is playing the role of the fool on stage. The person is acting silly, as his role requires.
Now let's change the context to something more familiar. This time, you're in a classroom. The sentence would be taken as saying that someone is acting like a fool, which is usually done in order to gain the attention of other children or teenagers.
Changing the sentence a little, let's see what the new meaning becomes:
"He's acting like a fool"
This wording is much more common for a classroom setting, no? However, the meaning of the sentence has stayed the same. You are saying that someone is acting, or behaving, like a fool. This means that the person in question is behaving foolishly. Let's alter the wording a little more:
"He's such a fool"
Now, you are saying that the person you're talking about is unwise. The one simple word, "acting," made a large impact on the meaning of the sentence.
Let's change things up a bit.
Some words have various meanings, all entirely different. One such word is "spirit." It can be used in many different ways, though you'll likely only hear two of the meanings without delving deeper into the word. Three of the meanings are or relate to soul, emotion and alcohol.
Since we're talking about language, let's focus on the second of the meanings listed. The most common usage is found when speaking of sports while watching them perform.
"Those girls have so much spirit!"
For this sentence, let's say that you're watching a group of cheerleaders. By stating that they have a lot of spirit, you are saying that they are vigorous and lively in their cheers. By replacing "Those girls" with "They," you could be talking about a football team, or any other sports team, that's playing strong. Even if the team is losing the match, they can be showing spirit by not giving up.
Now let's apply the same word in another way:
"His spirits are low"
What this sentence means is that the person you're talking about is not feeling very well. Not that they are ill in some way, but that they are emotionally spent. Having low spirits tends to mean that someone is going through a difficult time and just doesn't want to put any effort or energy into anything.
Another way to apply this word is as such:
"In the spirit of-"
Countless words can come after "of" for this sentence. The most common sentence you'll see this application of the word "spirit" is "In the spirit of Christmas" in almost all Christmas movies. In those movies, Christmas is all about sharing and spreading love and kindness. So really, when you hear "the spirit of Christmas," you are hearing "the spirit of love and kindness." What this means is that being kind and loving is encouraged. However, because "Christmas" is the word used in the sentence, this application for "spirit" tends to only be valid during the winter holiday.
"In the spirit of kindness"
By replacing the word "Christmas" with "kindness," we are now talking about acts of good will. Donating money to an animal shelter, giving food to a homeless person, giving a poor child a new toy, or complimenting someone are all acts of kindness. There are countless ways to show kindness. The use of the word "spirit" when applied in such a way is to embody the meaning of a word.
If a word has no emotion tied to it, "spirit" is not able to be properly used. Let's look at an example of this:
"The spirit of the instructions"
Now, "instructions" are not things that have emotions tied to them. Let's say that you're in math class for this example. Your teacher has instructed you to calculate the area of a triangle. Let's say that you complete your calculations faster than the rest of the class and begin doodling on your paper to pass the time; Because you're doodling instead of doing more calulations, your teacher tells you that you're ignoring the spirit of the instructions. Doesn't make much sense, right?
Let's change the sentence a little to make this sentence work:
"The spirit of learning"
Using the same math class example as above, your teacher walks up on you doodling and says that you're ignoring the spirit of learning. In this sense, "spirit" implies the will to learn. The will to learn is an eagerness to improve, with eagerness being the key emotion. By ignoring the spirit of learning, you are ignoring your ability to get better than you already are and are instead focusing on something else entirely.
There are many words that get misued in the English language. Listing all of them would likely take days or even weeks, so I'll keep this simple.
The most common word to get misused, from my own experience, is "a lot." Countless people use "alot" when they are talking about there being many of something. However, "alot" is not a word. Without the space between "a" and "lot" the word is supposed to be "allot" which is used when giving something for a specific purpose. Let's view a couple examples:
"There are a lot of balloons"
This sentence is saying that there are numberous, or many, balloons.
"Each farmer was alloted an acre of land."
What this sentence means is that each farmer was given an acre of land.
With the world becoming more and more virtual, with less people interacting in person, the English language is becoming more misused by the day. Personally, I find this disappointing and discouraging, since the language is capable of so much when used properly.
How do you view the English language and how it is used, as well as misused?