3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore - Arika Okrent

[0:07]In 1954, Winston cigarettes launched an ad so controversial, broadcasters refused to say it on the air. But the uproar had nothing to do with the dangerous product being advertised. People were appalled by the ads' grammar, specifically using like as a conjunction instead of as. Grammatical incidents like this have caused outrage in various regions and languages for centuries. But while we know people take grammar seriously, what's less clear is why? Where do these seemingly random rules come from and which, if any, actually matter? The answers to these questions vary from rule to rule. So let's look at three particularly famous English examples. First up, the idea that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. Prepositions are small common words like with, on, for or to, that often come before nouns. So, for example, a grammar stickler would consider where does this rule come from, incorrect. Preferring instead, from where does this rule come? This rule comes from 18th century England, when etiquette was all the rage. And amidst countless guides on how to act properly, grammarians flooded the market with books on how to speak properly. Many of the rules in these guides were taken from Latin, a language that was commonly used for written scholarship. But no one had spoken Latin conversationally in 1,000 years, and imposing its rules on speech was awkward to say the least. The rule to never strand a preposition without a noun was one such revised relic. And while the scholars who proposed it presented the idea as a stylistic choice, subsequent writers turned their suggestion into a hard rule. Other rules have origins that are perhaps less arbitrary, but significantly more petty. Consider the idea that you should use fewer when referring to countable nouns like water bottles, and less when referring to nouns we don't count, like water. This rule comes from another 18th century grammarian, called Robert Baker, who, for reasons unknown, believed less was inelegant when used with countable nouns. This might seem strange, but people today wage similar wars on so-called lesser language, such as like or literally. Besides, Baker's preference was part of a larger craze for codifying English. For centuries after the Norman Conquest in 1066, French was the language of nobility in England, while English was seen as the language of commoners. While the English had long reclaimed their kingdom by Baker's time, this insecurity lingered in the hearts of many English grammarians. In fact, Baker also wanted King George to establish an Academy of Letters with 50 officials to protect the English language. That's ten more officials than were employed in France's grammar guard, L'academie Française. Many English grammar rules have similarly silly origins, such as efforts to distinguish over from more than. Or our attachment to Latin plurals like fungi and formulae. The stakes of all these grammatical debates are mostly academic. But one frequently discussed rule does have some real-world consequences. For centuries, they has been used in classic literature and everyday speech as both a plural and a singular pronoun. And today, many non-binary and transgender individuals prefer to use they/them as singular pronouns to refer to themselves. 19th century grammarians, however, believed that they should be an exclusively plural pronoun. Furthermore, in cases where they could be used as a singular pronoun, they argued the word should be swapped for the generic he. This was an obviously patriarchal decision, and during the 1970s, activists eventually convinced some usage guides to begin using he or she. But today, this quibble continues to cause confusion, even though most official grammar guides have accepted they as both a singular and plural pronoun. This isn't the first time we've had this kind of pronoun predicament. For centuries, you was also considered an exclusively plural pronoun. And yet today, it's completely accepted in singular situations. And that's because grammar isn't a hard science. It's something we all build together to reflect the people using it. So, however strange a rule's origins may be, the usage we choose to respect today is far from arbitrary. If you love learning, subscribe to our channel. Every week we publish new videos on everything from the history of the world according to cats to how to be a better listener. Stay tuned and stay curious.