The Evolution of Language Is Torture for Grammar Nazis

If you care about grammar (like people called “Grammar Nazis”), then making grammar mistakes can be excruciatingly embarrassing. Like making a mistake in a post that corrects someone else’s grammar. That’s when people rush to make a *correction in a second post. Or if they’re too late, and someone else already caught it, they usually pull out some really obscure grammar rule to make another correction (as if to say, “It was an oversight, I swear! I really do know grammar!”).

Well, if you think that’s bad, the evolution of language puts that embarrassment on an entirely different level. Thanks to the evolution of language, you can correct someone only to find out that the rule you’re following is no longer the rule. Quotations aren’t used for that any more. That word (that didn’t used to be a word) is in the dictionary now. Oh, there’s more. Keeping up with the changes can be a full-time job.

Hear the cry of the frustrated Grammar Nazi: “How can I follow the rules if you keep changing them?”