Current Events > Why is this grammar wrong

(+) Yeah! (+)

He live in a house
I lives in a house
They lives in a house

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grammer*

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i dunno. probs for the same reason you have to put adjectives in order. make it sound right. dems da rulez.

ugh, i hate myself for this post.

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It's not ungrammatical, the verbs just aren't conjugated properly.

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Cpt_Pineapple posted...

my wife says: ' 'He' is a third person singular and hence 'lives' is the simple present conjugation of the verb. 'They' is a third person plural and 'I' is a first person singular so 'live' is the simple present form.'

._.

This is the correct answer.

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Cpt_Pineapple posted...

my wife says: ' 'He' is a third person singular and hence 'lives' is the simple present conjugation of the verb. 'They' is a third person plural and 'I' is a first person singular so 'live' is the simple present form.'

._.

That's really hot and sexy.

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Because most English speakers have agreed that it's wrong. There isn't really a universal authority on English, if you convince enough other people to agree that your version is either THE correct version or A correct version it will become "correct".

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pastaman44 posted...

Because most English speakers have agreed that it's wrong. There isn't really a universal authority on English, if you convince enough other people to agree that your version is either THE correct version or A correct version it will become "correct".

This is how language works in general. And TC's examples are possibly acceptable usage in various dialects anyways.

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Cpt_Pineapple posted...

my wife says: ' 'He' is a third person singular and hence 'lives' is the simple present conjugation of the verb. 'They' is a third person plural and 'I' is a first person singular so 'live' is the simple present form.'

._.

hmm insightful but have these always been the rules?

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Veggeta X posted...

hmm insightful but have these always been the rules?

No; conjugation happened differently in the past. You've probably heard of "thou shalt not...", to name a prime example.
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SothaSil posted...

This is how language works in general. And TC's examples are possibly acceptable usage in various dialects anyways.

Academic English is a nightmare though. Linguistically, yeah, it works. It doesnt sound natural, and would never be accepted by any literary outlet though.

unfortunately, some countries have very strict tests and this kind of crap is what fails them. So teachers end up teaching test english, and this is why so many japanese people have such bad english, because they never study actual conversational english

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People who have learned English later in life through classes, before immigrating here, have told me about what they consider to be "rules" and find themselves surprised that I (and other native speakers) don't follow these rules or know what they are.

One that sticks out in my mind was a group of them all explaining to me the difference between "will" and "going to" when talking about something future event. It was wrong of me to say "It'll rain tomorrow, according to the paper", because I need to use "going to" if I'm making a prediction based on evidence or something. They all nodded their head at this, and those of us who grew up here speaking English thought that was nonsense.

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R1masher posted...

grammer*

grammmmmmirr*
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pastaman44 posted...

People who have learned English later in life through classes, before immigrating here, have told me about what they consider to be "rules" and find themselves surprised that I (and other native speakers) don't follow these rules or know what they are.

One that sticks out in my mind was a group of them all explaining to me the difference between "will" and "going to" when talking about something future event. It was wrong of me to say "It'll rain tomorrow, according to the paper", because I need to use "going to" if I'm making a prediction based on evidence or something. They all nodded their head at this, and those of us who grew up here speaking English thought that was nonsense.

I guarantee you that most Americans or UK citizens couldnt pass some of the official tests Asian countries use for English. Ive seen them, they are bizarre, outdated, unnatural, and kind of treacherous too.

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