Common Phrases That Were Once Considered “Wrong'

Linguistic purism is a sociolinguistic phenomenon characterized by the advocacy for preserving a language in what its proponents consider its "pure" form, often by discouraging the use of foreign borrowings, neologisms, or any elements deemed corrupt or undesirable.

Linguistic purism can also be deeply intertwined with socio-economic perceptions, including an aversion to being perceived as "poor."

For example there is a stigma against using the word "ain't", it is a real word. People say it. People write it. And it has a meaning that everyone understands. But for whatever reason, it isn’t considered a ‘proper’ word to be used formally.

[DUXLOL]

They're gonna have a brain aneurysm when they hear internet slang, Australian slang, and Singaporean slang

[redjoker]

"Wait, it's all classism?" "Always has been"

[justanedit]

“I haven’t hardly any money”

Would’ve never guessed that someone who said that would be poor

[ttvZamamo]

The kitten mews whenever it wants in. Best one on there

[michaelvey]

It’s literally just southern phrases 😂

[DJ_Force]

"Not wanting to be seen as poor" drives a lot of "proper" behavior.

[kudjoeadkins-battle]

I realized some of this years ago. Being a speaker of AAVE. I always noticed that people around me tended to assume that if one spoke a more standardized version of English that they were “smart”. I grew up a reader so I always had a fairly extensive vocabulary. I would actually be upset when people would assume that the more standard English speaker was more informed than me just because of how they sounded. I went to the Army, and boy did I speak some not so knowledgeable Standard English speakers.

[AizaakThurston]

Still makes sense to me to say "This item needs to be fixed" or "This item needs fixing" but not "This item needs fixed"

[elijessen]

Yo, my brother is attempting his doctorate in linguistics, my sister is a speech language pathologist, my mother teaches human geography, and I'm obsessed with world religion (ancient and modern). Your channel feels like a family get-together without all the cursing, drink, and drugs. I mean, that's all still happening, I just have to pretend you're engaging alongside me. All that's to say, huge fan, love your content, I wouldn't be surprised if we were related.

[Aima]

would make people stare in my area. "Pleh-b" is the more common pronunciation here.

[piercebunge]

"The data is often inaccurate." Man in 1930s NYC: We seem to have ourselves a pleb!

[jamescooke]

What I learned from my time in university: academia is all etiquette. You'll learn some practical stuff, but most of what they're doing is teaching you the language and social graces of the field. This is why networking is so important in college: unless you're learning a technical vocation, you have to socialize well so you can get invited to the big events, the prestigious conferences, be able to talk to the Big Names in the field, etc. You can think of it as a psychological shoulder-check: you might be *smart* enough to do well in the field, but are you going to play the game by our rules or are you going to be a problem?
Me personally, I was clueless. I just liked learning facts and having my mind blown. Turns out, you can do that at home with some books and good friends.

[kjurpjdpihe]

In french the verb "fixer" means to install/ to set in place. So when I was learning english it was hard for me to understand how you use "to fix" in english.

[SventFulgur]

I still remember my older sisters chuckling when I used "y'all" in a sentence. I'm not even FROM Texas, I just moved here when my dad retired and the contraction just flowed better in conversation to me. 19 years later that's the only Southernism I really have and while I can imitate an accent I don't have one naturally. 😅

[melody]

I always hated people saying something “needs fixed” “needs watered” then I started doing it myself
I still hate people doing that

[Treegona]

There's an argument to be made for clarity. If there's too much linguistic drift a language might stop being mutually intelligable to people from different places, and the drift also increases the odds of us being unable to read works from the past.
More importantly if I had to learn how to talk right so do you!

[paegangrrl]

My parents are from southern Appalachia and moved just before I was born. I picked up a lot of their dialect and was teased mercilessly in school for it. One teacher I had in particular was militant about the students never saying “ain’t” because according to her that was not a word. The way I say “can’t” sounds like “cain’t” and it drove her crazy. Took seven year old me ages to figure out what I was saying wrong. The other kids took to teasing me for the way I talked after she would berate me for the way I spoke. Now as an adult my accent comes and goes which some people use as proof I’m faking it.

[Nthsey]

Number 196 is a bit of a head scratcher for me. Is it supposed to be “THE Reverend Jones will preach.”, that’s the only correction I can think of? I’m not church-going so maybe that plays into it for me.

Edit: I also just love 191 showing a perfect example of why linguistic purism sucks: sometimes we use words interchangeably like whip and whipped.

[lindahl]

As someone who doesn't have English as my first language; the grammatical errors hurt, it's everything we have taught is wrong. It doesn't make you sound poor, it makes you sound ignorant/uneducated.

[alirubaii]

It’s probably not because “fixed” couldn’t also mean “repaired, ” but the elision of “to be”