Have You Eaten Grandma?

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In a recent survey, four out of five teachers expressed concern about the vocabulary range of their teenage pupils. Apparently, “many are unable to understand questions in GCSE [single-subject exams] and SATs test papers, leading in some cases to low self-esteem.” Some eleven-year-olds did not know words such as “complete,” “replace,” and “insert.” Some sixteen-year-olds struggled with “explain,” “identify,” and “analyze.” Another survey revealed that while nine out of ten primary school children in the UK could identify a Dalek, only a third could recognize and name a magpie. The world is changing and words are disappearing. The majority of primary school children these days are city-dwellers, and up to two-thirds of them, it seems, are unfamiliar with such lovely words as these:

And a chapter at the end with all the grammar they stopped teaching around 1973 (and as such I missed). Punctuation is important, but the rules are changing. Spelling is important today in a way that it wasn’t when Shakespeare was a boy. Grammar isn’t set in stone. Once upon a time, to split an infinitive was wrong, wrong, wrong. Since the coming of Star Trek in 1966, when “to boldly go where no man has gone before” was what the now-iconic TV series promised to do, we’ve all been at it. “To actually get,” “to really want,” “to truly love,” “to just go”—you may not like them as turns of phrase, but take it from me: they are acceptable nowadays. End of. A] witty usage guide… Bolstered with an epilogue giving straightforward definitions for different parts of speech, his passionate, enlightening, and easily navigable manual is certainly the right book at the right time.”Have You Eaten Grandma? is a fun and handy book about the complexities of the English language and the power it holds (it just might save your grandma’s life). Overall a fun and informative read that's already come in useful at work (it settled a discussion on the plural of clerk of works?) The guide does cover some ground with regard to some key areas of grammar (punctuation, commas, confused words, etc.) and even some of the linguistic differences between British and American words and expressions, but at the end of the day, I think you can find a better guide for grammar out there if that is something you are looking for to help you improve your craft. At times, this book is a little unfocused and tends to wander or drift for a while on a topic that could have been condensed a little.

If you are from one of the nations that England colonized and got through that without cringing, here is more. And this is about the name of the book. A hilarious lament on the misuse of English grammar from the self-proclaimed punctuation perfectionist Gyles Brandreth An informal guide to punctuation, spelling and good English for the twenty-first century * Strong Words * Gyles Brandreth writes an entertaining and informative book about grammar and punctuation. I am a lover of words and truly appreciate the book. He writes in his self-deprecating manner which (hyphen may or may not be needed) ("which" is appropriate here as it refers to "manner" and it is a thing, not a person). He ends the book with a short chapter on "the language of grammar." This is where he defines nouns, verbs, participles, and those other constructs of sentences that may have contributed to the reason many people resist anything to do with grammar.This episode they are joined by battle-rapper Mark Grist, Derek Owusu from the award-winning Mostly Lit podcast, and Fiona Evans, Head of School Programmes at the National Literacy Trust. At times, this was laugh-out-loud funny, even though at times it felt a bit too long-winded and I found that I had to concentrate a lot and read carefully. One of the funniest moments has invented text acronyms for older people. I also learned a few things that I didn't know, which surprised me a lot at times; apparently I've been getting a few things wrong.

In this irreverent and conversational style guide, Brandreth makes improving one's langauge skills easy and even fun...great for communicators of all stripes, and, most importantly, it advises readers to follow the evolution of proper language into the future." Booklist This episode they are joined by Ben Crystal, leading practitioner of Shakespeare modern original practice performance and production, Rai Rafiq from the award-winning Mostly Lit podcast and writer Paul Bassett Davies. In this irreverent and conversational style guide, Brandreth makes improving one's langauge skills easy and even fun...great for communicators of all stripes, and, most importantly, it advises readers to follow the evolution of proper language into the future." Some readers might not have predicted that a former Conservative MP would be so liberal and happy about modern changes in usage. He counsels his audience to read “the rappers” as well as Jane Austen, and enjoys the possibilities of expression represented by new terms for sexual orientation, or online initialisms such as FML and YMMV. Even with a usage he personally finds irritating, such as “bored of” (rather than “bored with”), he consults “my friends at the Oxford University Press”, who tell him it is now very common. Only occasionally does he put a fogeyish foot down, insisting that “Can I get?” (the coffee-shop version of “Can I have?”) is “wrong, wrong, WRONG”. It’s hard to see why, since no misunderstanding is possible, and I suspect that “Can I get?” might even be an adorably polite display of diffidence, an unwillingness to focus on my own greedy desire to have something. Punctuation is important, but the rules are changing. Spelling is important today in a way that it wasn’t when Shakespeare was a boy. Grammar isn’t set in stone. Once upon a time, to split an infinitive was wrong, wrong, wrong. Since the coming of Star Trek in 1966, when “to boldly go where no man has gone before” was what the now-iconic TV series promised to do, we’ve all been at it. “To actually get,”“to really want,”“to truly love,”“to just go”—you may not like them as turns of phrase, but take it from me: they are acceptable nowadays. End of.

No double language is ever changing but it’s also important that we cling to what is the most accurate when it comes to expressing ourselves. Research has shown that those who speak good English have an advantage over those who don’t in many aspects of life. Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is an British theatre producer, actor, politician, journalist, author, and TV presenter. Born in Germany, he moved to London at the age of three and, after his education at New College, Oxford, he began his career in television. Gyles Brandreth thinks he gets better healthcare because of the way he speaks. A knowledge of linguistics would help Brandreth from making this dangerous claim. His publisher is also on the hook for allowing this to be published. I don’t think whoever copy edited this book had an understanding of linguistics either. This harmful passage and the pratfall section on grammar is proof of that. To me, punctuation matters and good spelling is essential. Clear written communication depends on them. The words we use and the way in which we use them are fundamental, but the nuts and bolts of grammar – and the vocabulary of the grammarian – are less important to me. […]