Blog: Emma Thompson's, like, talkin' 'bout grammar, innit.

Blog: Oscar winning Emma Thompson has turned her attention towards English grammar and those who do not speak properly like what me and you does.

In an interview with the Radio Times she says using phrases such as "like" and "innit" makes individuals sound stupid.

She claims it is vital teenagers learn the difference between speaking to their friends and talking to people in authority.

"There is the necessity to have two languages – one that you use with your mates and the other that you need in any official capacity. Or you're going to sound like a knob."

Is she right?

Bad grammar. Does it matter as long as the message is clear?

After all, English in an evolving language. It has been changing for hundreds of years.

One thing we do need to dismiss is the idea that bad grammar equals lower intelligence, stupidity.

Students, for example, are given 'A' grades in exams despite frequently writing grammatically incorrect sentences.

I'm not as angry as Ms Thompson appears to be but there are a couple of things that do irritate me.

I'm unsettled for some reason by the spread of so-called Estuary English - like what they speak darn souf.

I'm irritated by those wonderful role models for young people who appear on our television screens after Premier League football games and finish every sentence with "you know". Why, I also wonder, do they always look furtively about them, rarely looking the interviewer straight in the eye.

Careful Dave, you're rambling.

Back to the issue of grammar, slang, the sloppy use of language.

We should aim for a balance and avoid being self-righteous and moralistic.

I think the late Kingsley Amis - novelist, poet and critic - hit the nail on the head when he classifed in his book, The Kings's English, two groups of speakers of the language.

One is the Berks who care less about the future of English and the other is the W...ers (I will be in big trouble if I use the word ) who care more.

He describes the Berks as careless, coarse, crass, gross and of what anybody would agree is a lower social class than one's own. They speak in a slipshod way with dropped Hs, intruded glottal stops and many mistakes in grammar. Left to them the English language would die of impurity, like late Latin.

W...ers on the other hand are prissy, fussy, priggish, prim and what they would probably misrepresent as a higher social class than one's own. They speak in an over-precise way with much pedantic insistence on letters not generally sounded, especially Hs. Left to them, the language would die of purity, like medieval Latin.

Now that's neat innit?

PS: Dear reader I hope the above is grammatically correct, otherwise you might think me a W....er, you know.