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correct usagecorrect usagePosted Jul 30, 2004 16:01 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)In reply to: X at OLS by socket Parent article: X at OLS >the "correct" forms more often match up with archaic forms, As the language changes, there are varying opinions at any moment as to what is archaic. Someone says some usage is "correct" when he believes that it has not yet become archaic, but others often find that it is (because they learned some newer way first). Even the most pedantic proponent of correct English today would not say that "thou" is correct in any sentence, but he might believe the rule against dangling a preposition is still current. >"This is a sentence construction up with which we should not put," which nobody, 200 years ago or now, really thinks is a reasonable way to express oneself as a native English speaker. More to the point, nobody ever thought it was correct, which makes it irrelevant to this point. "up" in this sentence is a verb particle, not a preposition, and that means the correct sentence is, "this is a sentence construction with which we should not put up." Even that sounds awkward to many current speakers, particularly uneducated ones, who prefer "... which we should not put up with." But it's still a respected enough construction to call "correct usage," and therefore to consider using if you want people to think you're smart and to avoid offending sensitive ears.
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