Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Scary American Grammar

It's frightening when an otherwise erudite writer posts something like "Charles the II." It's either Charles II or Charles the Second, but I can't think of an instance where the latter would be written rather than verbal.

And it drives me batty when people refer to a knighted celebrity by their last name, like "Sir Geldof" or whatever. It's "Title [then] First Name," not "Title [then] Last Name."

I know Americans are more ignorant than much of the rest of the world, and I've been enough liberal blogs bemoan the "dumbing down" of this and that, so it really behooves us not to revel in this kind of easily-rectified error.

0 comments: