I'm an English-loving weirdo

I think people may get the wrong impression of me when I tell them that I love English. They think that loving English is equivalent to loving to correct grammar.

In case you didn't know, English isn't just about grammar. If it were, I would probably suck at it, because I don't really like grammar all that much.


Don't get me wrong; grammar can be interesting and fun and lots of other adjectives people don't really believe. But I'm not interested in catching people in grammatical errors. Yes, I have pet peeves, like when people say the Bible uses Old English, or when people hypercorrect and say weird stuff like, "It was such a nice day for Jordan and I." Gross. But I would never call someone out on grammar stuff. Prescriptive grammar should be reserved for formal writing (and occasionally formal speech). The only time I'd correct someone would be to tease them, and only if they're secure in their English-using abilities. Like my smart, attractive, linguistically-gifted husband.


Anyway, I love English BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME. No, really. I know I can't persuade people on this, you included, but English really is freakin' awesome. It has a pretty interesting history, involving lots of countries with their own languages (this is part of why English seems totally messed up). We have gajillions of words, and a lot the words have synonyms, which provide shades of meaning. There are lots of dialects in English, and who doesn't like to hear a sweet Scottish/New Zealand/whatever-tickles-your-fancy accent? And I think it's fascinating that, not only do the sounds and their order in words influence the pronunciation, but the mechanics of our bodies do too, making everyone's English a little bit different. Plus, I just think it's flat-out interesting that English is structured in the way it is--we have pretty basic sentence structures, don't technically have to worry about cases, only have three moods, and don't have gendered nouns! Thank you, English!!


You probably aren't into English, even though you speak it and write it and think it and dream it. You're kinda weird for not liking your own language, but that's okay. That's why I majored in English Language and you didn't.