Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Miscellany US Geographical Linguistic Twists
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
We're all ignorant about something, Dr. Bill. We all learned our language initially (and at a level that we may even call instinctive) from listening to others using it, in the earliest stages, mostly our parents. If they had used may instead of can in the context of asking permission they wouldn't have had to berate us about our so-called misuse of the terms later. I think that treating a simple request to interrupt one's privacy for the purpose of getting what may well be critical information as a discourtesy is indicative of a greater discourtesy. Think of people's intent and don't hold them to standards that have slipped years ago. I could accept regarding "Hey pops! Tell me something." as being discourteous, but not "Can I ask you a question?"
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,372Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 381 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 25
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,561tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,919Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org