Current Events > What are some silly rules in the English language.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not ending a statement with a preposition. It was made a rule because some dude liked Latin. The difference between Fewer and Less was just something added by some dude long after the fact.

Words like receipt, debt, and doubt. What the fuck.

For our English friends. That random U all over the place.

I before E except after C except when you don't do that.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/youve-been-lied-to-heres-why-you-absolutely-can-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition/

Irony posted...

I before E except after C except when you don't do that.

It's down to a science.

Grammar snobbery is for people who have nothing to say.

Irony posted...

I before E except after C except when you don't do that.

This. I remember first learning of that rule from a teacher and losing a class spelling bee when I tried to stick to it. It felt so unfair lol, I stuck to the rule dammit

Irony posted...

I before E except after C except when you don't do that.

They tried to fix it with:

I before E except after C or when sounded as A as in neighbour and weigh.

though that still doesn't work properly. But lolol at this:

I before e, except after c
Or when sounded as 'a' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'
Unless the 'c' is part of a 'sh' sound as in 'glacier'
Or it appears in comparatives and superlatives like 'fancier'
And also except when the vowels are sounded as 'e' as in 'seize'
Or 'i' as in 'height'
Or also in '-ing' inflections ending in '-e' as in 'cueing'
Or in compound words as in 'albeit'
Or occasionally in technical words with strong etymological links to their parent languages as in 'cuneiform'
Or in other numerous and random exceptions such as 'science', 'forfeit', and 'weird'.

Maybe just how so much of it has become near-solely tied up with academic or quasi-academic language. So if you ever move in those circles for a time and then get out of it, you basically have to change the whole way you talk to essentially get back to a more simplified type of English.

I'm sure other languages have this to a high degree as a well, but I think English in particular is affected by how many reference/source languages it has drawn from over the years.

People that don't use the Oxford comma.

All of them.
English is about a dozen languages sloppily duct-taped together.