Every time I turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper there it is: bad grammar. "Syria Conflict" was the headline on the BBC this evening. So was "Mexico Weather". Why can't they get it right?! It's "Syrian" and "Mexican". You can say, "Weather in Mexico", or "Conflict in Syria", but you can't say..."Syria Conflict" or "Mexico Weather".
Hard to believe the BBC gets it wrong. Another mess I always see is "education system". Hello, it's "educational". The other grammatical component no one gets correctly is the "future past". This is when you talk about something that was to "have happened", but didn't. The CBC consistently says, "was to happen". No. How can something "was to happen" in the present when it didn't in the future, which would have been the past.
Get it?
I know I bang on about grammar, but I love it and am driven crazy when English-speakers have no clue. Heard a guy today going on about "would have went". Please and please again. What else is a mess? The conditional tense. People always get that wrong. They say, "If I would've went, I would've......" No, it's "If I had gone, I would have.........." You don't have two "would've-s". Just incorrect and appalling.
"How are you"?, must be responded to as, "Fine", or "Well" -- never "Good", which is all I hear out here.
I remain a 'Grammar Nazi' and will until the day I die.
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