What I Have Learnt About English

I will not say that I have never been concerned about ill-English grammar in the past, but this winter I read a great book entitled: English Handbook - A Reference for English Grammar and Composition, published by Christian Light Education, and it changed my perspective on my own English as well as everyone else I have heard. We have some problems, folks!

One line that I liked from it was this: "Christians are called to do all things well. Colossians 3:23 says, 'And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord.' God wants the best from His people, whether in spiritual matters or in correct communication." I agree with this: as Christians, we should strive to speak both well, and correctly. And I know some of you might be thinking, "Really, it is just our language; what does it matter?" But for me, I desire to speak in a "well-educated manner."

In the middle of the book, there is a chapter listing the common informal, incorrect or misused words that we all use everyday. Below are the ones that I misuse with their correct replacements:

Anyways - anyway

Awfully (as an adverb) - quite, very, etc.

Backwards - backward

Hopefully (when replacing I hope; not when used as an adverb) - I hope, we hope, etc.

Kind of (as an adverb) - Rather

Nowhere near - not nearly

Off of - off

Rarely ever - rarely

Informal misuses:

Couple of - a few

Figure - think

Like - as though

Very - quite

Other grammer mistakes that I make:

Can - may, would, could, are you able to?...

I/me - Would you come with Sally and me? Sally and I are going to the store...

There's three - there are three

If you are interested in this sort of thing, I would highly recommend the above mentioned book, but as a Canadian it was hard to know which rules applied to us, as it is American.

So, if you see any mistakes of any kind on my blog, please correct me!