Thursday, June 2, 2011

She Loves You, Yay, Yea, Yeah...

Alright, I realize most of you don't really know me, but take my word for it, I'm a pretty easy-going guy. Which is not always easy on the Internet when you've got a degree in English. Now don't worry, I'm not the militant English degree guy. You know the people who feel the need to correct every little thing that is wrong. I used to call them the "Grammar Nazis". When I first started teaching, they were the older women in the English department that thought that the survival of mankind hinged on correct comma placement. (by the way, I think my first sentence might be a little dicey as far as commas go) And they would spend like 20 minutes of a 45 minute class beating kids over the head with a grammar club. My philosophy was, and still is, if you haven't got it by high school, there's nothing I can do that's going to cause the clouds to part and send divine grammar knowledge directly to your noggin. So while I'm better than most at grammar, I'm not great, and I don't care. I also don't care if you're not that great.(and mankind seems to be surviving)

 What does drive me a little nuts, is people using words incorrectly. (thus the title of this entry) You see "Yay", "Yea", and "Yeah", used interchangeably all over the place. AND IT'S MAKING ME CRAZY! Okay, maybe I was already crazy, but that's not my point! (try to stay on task, people)

The most common one is "Yea" for "Yeah". Like adding that "H" at the end was just a little too much to do. "I wanted to use the right word, but I just got so tired..." C'mon! Take some pride in your vocabulary! But now I'm getting a little tired of this semi-educational rant. So let's just lay out the definitions::

Yay - Your team just scored!
Yea - Your bill just passed!
Yeah - You're using slang again, please say "yes" instead, or the survival of mankind could be in jeopardy!

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