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Thursday 28 March 2024

The present use of English is as shocking as Orwell said -


Have you noticed recently? It seems like everything has an 's' at the end of it. That's right, everything is plural now. 


When I was young, certain words weren't plural. As I currently train people to use different forms of language, it's evident to me that the fact is accommodation is merely an uncountable noun; not a plural noun. There is absolutely no need to put an 's' on the end of it, yet people do this again and again these days.

I've noticed different new plural forms emerging just in the past year or six months. It makes me want to throw up because they're not words. They never were words, they aren't words, and they never will be words, but it almost seems like if you are an intelligent left-wing writer — that's an oxymoron — you automatically put an 's' on the end of the word. 


Some of these are simply shocking!  Another one that I've heard recently is insurances

It's not a fucking word!

This is exactly like accommodations.

What is even worse, is the use of the word behaviours!  No such fucking word!  Behaviour is all that you need!


I was actually in China recently, and they use the word harms, as in harms and benefits; although it's forgivable as it's not the native language, but still, another horrible use of a non-plural word becoming plural!

But the above, from the well-heeled people of Singapore, is the prize winner.  So far, I've been unable to find the original article, though this link:

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3253923/us-envoy-singapore-threatened-staff-wasted-money-and-created-culture-fear-watchdog-finds

gives more information, about some mini-Tyrant from the USA.

Staffs?

Surely this is personnel, or the very simple, non-S word - Staff!


I've seen other examples of appalling English, which I've detailed with links, etc.

But I would really like to get into the psychology of this. Is it snobbery? Is it downright ignorance? Or is it, once again, doing everything possible to influence somebody as if to say, Look how intelligent I am?

In this, we once again footnote the great George Orwell.


Some of you people here keep going on in articles about Orwell, and literally the only thing you say is, besides '1984,' is that people who erase history and use the standard quote 

Please do some reading. This was the least of his worries. He was very shocked at the time in the 1930s and '40s, about the state of the English language, and it should be mandatory reading to actually read his Politics and the English Language. In that, he gives several rules for writing (above). 

It seems like nothing has changed.

Recht

PS - As of earlier today, for some reason Twitter has blocked my for the next week.  No idea why?