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People trying to spell FRACKING:

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It’s that same tension that makes English so expressive. And fun to learn about.

The first explanations of English grammar insisted on models that don’t correspond to the way that English actually functions. Just like the vocabulary of our language, the grammar of English is a story of tension between classical Latin perfection and faulty English rudeness.

Standards of eloquence are inherently conservative because we learn from teachers who are a generation or two older than us, whose teachers were a generation or two older than them. My high-school history teacher’s teachers were born in the 19th century.

We love rules! We want rules. We want stability and predictability in our language. The historic inferiority complex with regard to Latin is often expressed in a palpable masochism on the part of English speakers, who want to be spanked when they transgress.