With spellings & syntax all over the place, knowing nuances of English grammar is diminishing

The debate over vagaries of the English language has been raging for decades but only pedants ever get truly incensed by issues such as whether ‘to boldly go’ and begin with ‘and’ and end with a with.

The recent minor eddy in a teacup over a dictionary editor in the US posting on social media that the weirdest quirk in the English language is the debate over split infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions highlights this peculiarity.

It would not be wrong to say that most users of the English language today do not even know what a preposition is, much less what it is for. Some may probably think the ‘e’ in that word is a misprint, or pronounce it as pre-position and construe it as a synonym for preparing in advance.


By pointing out that ‘those two examples are used by grammar police to show off their superior knowledge of worthless information’, a responder to the editor’s post reinforced the fact that grammar is becoming practically redundant — if indeed mastery of it has ever really mattered at all.

With spellings, syntax, definitions and other basics already falling by the wayside in our era, the utility of knowing the more complicated nuances of English grammar is predictably diminishing.

It is one part of their examination syllabus that students in India will certainly be elated by if it is dispensed with.