Correctness
When people say that somebody’s language is ‘not correct’, they may mean several different things.
Slips and mistakes: He works in wildlife conversation.
People sometimes make slips of the tongue when they are talking.
- He works in Wildlife Conversation – I mean Conservation.
Somebody can use a word wrongly because he or she is unsure of its meaning, or confuses it with another word.
- You’re being very authoritative. (mistake for ‘authoritarian’)
And many people have trouble with spelling and punctuation.
- The company has doubled it’s profits this year. (should be its profits)
Foreign learners may also make mistakes with points of grammar that do not cause problems for native speakers.
- I could not understanding the lecture. (instead of I could not understand …)
Dialect forms: I ain’t done nothing.
Dialect forms are not incorrect, though some people believe they are (see here); they are simply different. Teachers in British schools often tell children whose dialects have multiple negation, for example, that they are making mistakes if they say things like ‘I ain’t done nothing’, because ‘two negatives make a positive’ (so I ain’t done nothing is supposed to mean ‘I have done something’). This is not, of course, the case: in the child’s dialect, the sentence means ‘I haven’t done anything’ (like the equivalent in older English and many modern languages). Indeed, if ‘two negatives make a positive’, then the teacher ought to be quite happy if the child says ‘I ain’t done nothing to nobody’, since logically three negatives must make a negative!
Dialect forms are not, therefore, incorrect in themselves. They are, however, out of place in styles where only the standard language is normally used. It would be inappropriate – in fact, incorrect – to use I wants, he don’t or a double negative in a school essay, a job application, a newspaper article or a speech at a business conference. In fact, British dialects are rarely written (though Scotland has a tradition of dialect literature which is still very much alive).
Divided usage: different from; different to
Speakers of a standard language often differ about small points of usage. Where two different forms are common, people who use one form may claim that theirs is the only ‘correct’ usage, and that people who use the other form are making mistakes. Some examples from modern English:
| so-called ‘only correct form’ | so-called ‘mistake’ |
|---|---|
| Jack and I went to the cinema. | Jack and me went to the cinema. |
| They’re different from us. | They’re different to us. |
| fewer people | less people |
| Somebody’s dropped his or her keys. | Somebody’s dropped their keys. |
In fact, all of the so-called ‘mistakes’ listed above have been normal in standard English for centuries, and are not wrong at all (though some of them are more informal than the so-called ‘only correct forms’, and would be out of place in a formal style). For details, (see here) (I and me), (see here) (different), (see here) (less) and (see here) (their).
Prescriptive and descriptive rules
If people say that less people or different to is wrong, they are following a prescriptive rule. Prescriptive rules are made by people who believe that they can improve a language, or protect it against change. A lot of prescriptive rules were made by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British grammarians, often because they thought that English grammar should imitate Latin, which was considered a superior language. A typical example is the older condemnation of ‘split infinitives’ like to boldly go, where an adverb is put between to and the verb (a Latin infinitive is a single word, so cannot be split). Many people still believe this, and try to avoid split infinitives, although the rule is unrealistic (see here). A similar rule said that sentences should not end in prepositions (as in What are you waiting for? or I don’t like being shouted at). In fact, it is quite normal for English sentences to end in prepositions (see here). Most prescriptive rules give misleading information, and have little effect on the development of a language.
Descriptive rules simply say what happens in one form of a language (for example standard written British English, standard spoken American English, Yorkshire English, Dublin English or Singapore English), and not what some people feel ought to happen. The rules in Practical English Usage are primarily descriptive of standard British English (spoken and written), but include notes on American–British differences where necessary.
When do mistakes become correct? a concerted effort
When somebody misuses a word or expression, this may influence other people to make the same mistake. Sometimes a mistake becomes so widespread that it turns into part of the language (this is one way in which languages develop), and we can no longer realistically call it a ‘mistake’. The expression oblivious of, for example, originally meant ‘forgetful of’, but came to be used to mean ‘unconscious of’. A hundred years ago this was still a mistake; now it is the normal use. The same thing is happening today with the expression a concerted effort. This literally means ‘an effort by people working together’, but its original meaning is getting lost. Since very many people now use it to mean ‘a strong effort’, this should probably no longer be considered a mistake.