Cat's New English Post 1

I've heard that repeating a bad habit just makes a person more inclined to repeat again. The more we repeat, the more the bad habit gets engrained in our system.

But I've also heard that calling attention to bad habits makes a person more likely to do something about it. We're all pretty lazy about one thing or another, it just depends on what your thing is.

I get pretty lazy about the English language, mostly because I'm always in a hurry when I'm writing it.

Sometimes it's because I really don't know the right way to write, say, spell, or punctuate something.

If someone doesn't call me out on it (because it's actually quite jarring and a little annoying when someone actually does) I have to notice myself when I do it.

I caught a few errors in my brain-blasting comments on Facebook today. I'll post them here for my own personal self ridicule, but also to train myself not to do them again. (And also so you can not feel so bad if these are things you do yourself.)

But I stand by Public Ridicule. Public ridicule works well. I learned this in school, you know.

Today Cat said, in her New English:

"I like that there's options."

If I turned this sentence around, I could say "Options are there."

What I'm saying in my New English is "Options is there."

Real English would say:

"I like that there are options."

Today Cat also said, in her New English:

"Give a kid an iPad and they're set for several years."

"A" kid doesn't equal more than one kid.

The sentence should read:

"Give a kid an iPad and he's set for several years."

Plus - copyeditors just like when a writer picks a gender for an article and stays with it. A general "they" doesn't do it for Real English, unless a writer is referring to a specific group of people.

But the kicker New English said by Cat, today:

Let's hope the new software let's you highlight.

Awesome. I used lets correctly and incorrectly in the same sentence.

Real English would say:

Let's (let us) hope the new software lets you highlight.

Or "Let's hope the new software allows you to highlight." Because "lets" is one of those dang words it's just so fun to hang an apostrophe on for no reason. "Allows" is a way better word for that sentence.

Or we could talk like salad:

Lettuce hope the new software tastes like lettuce.

Because that's fun too.

Alright. That's enough Cat English for today.

Let's hope my brain lets me retain my corrections.

Stay tuned for new ones. I'm always messing up my mother tongue!

CAT

P.S. All my New English appeared in one place today ... a Writer's Digest editor's FB page. Good one, Cat. I received an invite to the "Elements of Effective Writing: Grammar and Mechanics" course hosted by Writer's Digest an hour later. Coincidence? Hmmmm. Somebody might be trying to tell me something.