Are Adverbs banned in the USA?

Well, as far as I know every major writer suggest to avoid adverbs...I remember in particular Stephen King quoting the immortal Elements of Style about this issue.

Yay, let's pick on the Yanks...

A common tactic in the Americans' 'War On English' is to insert the word, "awesome" into every sentence. (It's a wonder they get anything done over there, what with them being filled with awe of everything all the time. )

Append to that the words "like", "so", "dude", and "totally"... and you have just completed a pretty-comprehensive "How To Speak American" course.

Tommy.
(Who is just poking fun... honest I am. No, really. I am. Put down that handgun, Mr. Yankyman!)

It's not just in the US, the British media are just as guilty. I cringe at some of the newsreaders and announcers on the radio and television.

There's also the matter of the word "potentially" which seems to be included in every other sentence now.

"The bomb was potentially dangerous". As far as I'm concerned all bombs ARE dangerous!

Also, if I hear Gordon Ramsay say he's a restauranteur or that he's using a vinigarette dessing, I'll scream! (The words should be restrateur and vinaigrette of course.)

As for those men that suffer with their prostrate...

Ray

Language evolves. Where did you think the "standard" forms to which you are advocating adherence come from? Ever see something written in Old English?

The prevalence of literacy has slowed evolution down a bit in actuality. You can still see the evolution. It wasn't too long ago you drempt about something and now you dreamed it. Verb endings are moving toward consistency. At one point in time it was wrong to write a sentence with both the singular person and the plural pronoun, as in = "The person who writes in this style will find their work highly criticized." This formation is now in frequent, and accepted, usage since it became became socially disadvantageous to use the generic "he".

The movement to shorten adverbs is not really a movement - it's an evolution and to fully understand what is going on you may want to look at what social causes that might be the precursor. Is it lack of teachers who understand their own language? Not a silly question. I tutored some English teachers in college and they were a disgrace. It might just be an evolution from harder constructions to easier ones and that isn't a bad thing at all. At this point it could also be a repercussion of the infusion of a second language population into the indigenous language area - which always changes the language of both populations.

In other words:

Sho nuff <3

Thanks to all the typing, IM's, and texting it's gonna evolve a lot more.

I once had to grade a student's paper full of R's for are and U's for you and 4's for for.

R U 4 real? OMGWTFBBQ!

Text messaging is pervading and perverting our language. It aggravates the heck out of the writer in me.

My German husband gets on my West Virginia-raised case all the time about language.

We could fill a dictionary with the phrases I make up sometimes

True. I wonder the same. What has happened to my generation? They feel they have no need for grammar and cannot talk properly.

I live in the south where English is barely recognizable and
education is not held in high regard. Most of these people
think that the only reason a boy would graduate from high
school is because he's too lazy to get a job. (The same half-
wits that think its OK for babies to pop out babies as soon as
they're able.)

Tom

Michelle "my bad" is a statement taking blame for a mistake or action. It would look more like "my mistake". Not sure how it came around - ghetto speak mostly, I believe.

I've always found "I could care less" puzzling. The only way it makes sense to me is if you add a question mark, "I could care less?" You then have a typical example of a Jewish ironic response.

I used to work in a Jewish run business and heard that sort of remark every day. I don't think I ever laughed so much at work as I did there.

I think the same applies to "tell me about it" which makes no sense otherwise.

Are any Jewish Warriors able to confirm this?

Ray

With the administrations of the YUK and USA desperately dumbing down language and educational standards in order to further promulgate irresponsible and near criminal departmental behaviour, we can safely anticipate the devolution of the language we speak to a few gutteral utterances and some langorous hand movements.

This type of communication is already very common in 'man in the street' interviews and fault rebuttals by the eminente.