[GWL]: grammar talk

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• Subject: [GWL]: grammar talk
• From: C*@aol.com
• Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 18:16:24 EST
• List-archive: <http://topica.com/lists/Gardenwriters/read>

    One of my pet peeves is the expression "a long ways" such as in It is a 
long ways away.  Since the article is the singular "a" the word it is 
modifying should also be singular: a long way away.  I've noticed this 
mistake made more often in the U.S. than in England.  (In fact, I don't think 
I've ever heard it in England.)  Has the "incorrect" version become standard 
American English?
    Also, more and more I'm hearing people (even very educated ones) talk 
about me and Barry instead of Barry and me (or whomever).  I was always 
taught that you put yourself last whether it was in social etiquette or 
language.
    Finally, an Amusing Language Story: Once in Salzburg, Austria a woman 
stopped me on the street and asked me if I spoke English.  I said, "Yes."  
She asked if I minded walking and talking to her so she could practice her 
English.  I said I would be delighted, and we chatted for a bit.  Then she 
stopped dead in her tracks, rather like the cartoon character that literally 
digs in its heels, and said, "You don't speak English, you speak American!"
    Catriona Tudor Erler
    

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