Grammatical mistakes

[Cathy Ratcliff]

Actually, "I seen it" and "I done it" are Scots language, and I think "we wis here" is too. I'm not sure about "he has came", but it might be. Perhaps some people in the Columbus area are of Scottish origin? 

See this if you're interested: http://www.scotslanguage.com/ 

Best, 

Cathy Ratcliff, 
Edinburgh 

On 17 Oct 2011, at 20:14, Natalia Tsumakova wrote:

> Dear Dr. Kalbous,
> 
> Russians do make mistakes quite often. That is why we have gramota.ru as
> Richard mentioned here.
> 
> Take for example the infamous *моё день рожденье* (mojo den' rozhden'je). It
> is a widespread mistake.
> I hope it will not become legalized by analogy with *моё кофе* (mojo kofe).
> :o)
> 
> Here are some links about typical mistakes in the Russian language:
> http://www.gramota.ru/biblio/research/rubric_370/rubric_388/
> http://2003.vernadsky.info/works/g8/03090.html
> http://doc-style.ru/DO/?id=1.4
> http://rus.1september.ru/view_article.php?ID=200802404
> http://vkontakte.ru/topic-107497_10326748
> 
> and the English language:
> http://www.amazon.com/Grammar-Girls-Misused-Words-Confuse/dp/0312573375
> 
> -- 
> Kind regards,
> * *
> *Natalia Tsumakova*
> ATA member
> NOTA member
> M.A. in Slavic Linguistics, 2005
> Translator, Interpreter, Proofreader
> English, Polish, Estonian <> Russian
> Columbus, Ohio, USA
> +1-614-804-6642
> natalka999 at gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 1:43 PM, George Kalbouss <kalbouss at mac.com> wrote:
> 
>>       This question stems from frustrating experiences I've had with
>> people
>> in the Columbus area whose grammar is positively atrocious.  I'm not
>> speaking
>> of word mispronunciation or spelling mistakes.  I'm speaking of people who
>> seem
>> totally incapable of forming a past tense (i.e. "we wuz here," "I seen it
>> yesterday,"
>> "he has came here,"), as well as other variances from the norm.  There
>> should
>> be no excuse for this, for the most part the speakers are from the working
>> class,
>> but are virtually all high school graduates.
>> 
>>       The question I have is this:  "do Russians make grammatical errors?"
>> When
>> I think of all the interactions I have had with Russians, both in Russia
>> and emigres
>> in the US,  I cannot recall ever encountering one who made a grammatical
>> error.
>> (I'm excluding so-called "heritage speakers,"  persons of other ethnic
>> backgrounds
>> for whom Russian is a second language, or people who mispronounce words).
>>    When
>> I think about the various dialogues I've read in Russian literature and
>> drama,  I can recall many
>> instances of "dialect" Russian which was usually expressed with alternate
>> pronunciations,
>> but not really errors in grammar.
>> 
>>       A few years back, I was taking a seminar in the Finnish language in
>> Finland.
>> After going through practicums in incredible rules of grammar,
>> declensions, exceptions, etc.,
>> one of the participants in the group asked the instructors the same
>> question, i.e.,
>> "do Finns make grammatical errors?"  The instructors seemed visibly lost in
>> answering
>> the question,  their first inclination was to say, "no they don't" -- yet
>> an answer like
>> that seemed positively silly.
>> 
>>       If I am right (or leaning in that direction),  what is it about
>> English that seems to invite
>> people into making these mistakes when Russian and Finnish (and other
>> languages)
>> where there are many more rules and variances, for people to speak
>> correctly?  Perhaps
>> at least we can agree that errors in grammar seem to abound more with
>> native English speakers
>> than they do with native Russian speakers.
>> 
>>       I'd appreciate any musings on this subject!
>> 
>> George Kalbouss
>> Assoc Prof (Emeritus)
>> The Ohio State University
>> 
>> 
>> 
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