I've been listening to an audiobook on English grammar for a while now. It's been on and off listening because twelve hours on English grammar need to be broken up with other books of the more non-fiction variety.
The author discusses how what is grammatically acceptable changes over time and there are periods of time that something increases in popularity and subsequently becomes seen as more standard and accepted. Whereas other things in either our written or spoken language fall off in usage as different things become more mainstream. And that while there are generally accepted standards, there is no one standard for everything. In fact, many style guides differ in what is accepted.
Something she said in American English that I knew, but hadn't thought about was the acceptance of gonna, hafta, wanna, gotta and several other words in similar formation in our spoken word. That we speak them without even thinking about it. We might write, "she's going to call the repairman tomorrow" but if we were to speak it aloud to someone it would naturally come out, "she's gonna call the repairman tomorrow."
I say all of the informal contractions. Using the non-contracted form sounds stilted and formal. I wonder if everyone I know says them, or, more to the point, if anyone I know doesn't say them?
What My Son Did Today: My son has been told tomorrow he may watch a movie or perhaps a show, but no more YouTube. He's not watching bad stuff but it sure hasn't been good stuff. Maybe I'll get hin to watch one of my science shows tomorrow.
What My Daughter Did Today: She and I made some cookies with Mimi and then I went out on some errands. When I got home she had the slime kit from her birthday and she and Madison had made lots of slime in the dining room. There was glitter. I hate glitter. They were quite happy with their creations though.
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