I was having a conversation with my 4 year old granddaughter and she said to me “we ‘goed’ to the corner store last night” or something along those lines and I immediately went to correct her and realized something…
Why is ‘goed’ wrong? What is wrong with saying ‘goed’? Who made the decision that a word in the English language is grammatically correct? Who makes those decisions?
Well , it turns out that nobody really knows for sure. According to Wonderopolis, historians believe grammar could have started back as far as 1586 with the book Pamphlet For Grammer by William Bullokar.
Who made this guy the grammar boss???
Researching on, I also thought it was interesting to read that the U.S. doesn’t have an agency that regulates the english language (does any country?) AND the U.S. doesn’t even have an official language. Sure, that makes sense considering we are the Great American Melting Pot.
I am not here knocking the usefulness of grammar as it has its place. Especially when it comes to the needed ubiquitousness of punctuation…
For example, which is more appropriate?
- We are here to eat grandma! or
- We are here to eat, grandma!
Both obviously have their meaning and place in a situation. They are both grammatically correct for the meaning they are trying to convey…
But since cannabalism is ‘frowned upon’ in the American culture-well, you know.
Okay, let’s lay off poor old grandma, now. You get my point that I agree that punctuation which is clearly necessary. Now, back to my original quandry.
My observation is this: with ‘went’ as the past tense of ‘go’, after some further research it turns out that ‘went’ is a form of ‘wend’, an actual word I had never even heard of until today after 57 years on this rotating rock. Wend means ‘go in a specified direction, typically slowly or by an indirect route.’
“they wended their way across the city”.
See? Even the past tense of wend isn’t went!!
All in all, our grammar structure ends up being about the Oxford Language and its rules. And ancient languages. Traditions. ‘Norms’ that we have mindlessly adopted to (I dislike this next word vehemently) conform.
I am just thinking that we should not judge each other on our independence for anomalies we want to adopt to be different. Either accidentally or on purpose. Appreciate our independence. Even bless it. And use ‘improper’ english. It ain’t gonna hurt nobody, is it?
Hey! How about us all conform by NOT conforming…
Do yourself a favor and sit and think for a minute about the things you do in your life and you don’t know why you do it that way. It could be a very enlightening experience.
You are most welcome.