SimplyMaggies

Lately at work, there has been a lot of talk about gossiping. And I can completely understand the need to limit the amount of gossip flying around (since it really isn’t good for the morale of the employees) but let’s not get out of hand here. There is gossip and there is venting. So again, here goes the American way of misunderstanding things (or is it just that they cannot simply leave well enough alone?).

Thus, let’s look at what ‘gossip’ actually means, shall we? According to Encarta Dictionary ‘to gossip’ means “to spread rumors or tell people the personal details of others’ lives, especially maliciously”, and ‘a gossip’ is a “conversation about the personal details of other people’s lives, whether rumor or fact, especially when malicious” or a person “who habitually discusses the personal details of others’ lives”.

And there is venting, which so often is confused with gossiping. If, for example, I complain to a co-worker about another that happened to piss me off, I am not gossiping (contrary to what some would like to believe) but simply venting my frustrations. Since ‘to vent’ means “to release or […] express strong feelings or emotions”…

So my question is: why do Americans try to eliminate all kinds of talking among co-workers? People need an avenue to vent their frustrations and annoyance at work since there is an enormous amount of stress associated with work in general. And then you add the ongoing fight to reduce so-called gossip, which only adds fuel to the fire…

I was lucky enough to work in both European and American environments and I must admit that the European (even though is as stressful as American) is far less strict with what the employees can and cannot do while at work, which only makes for nicer working atmosphere. And the only solution to the problem that comes to mind is simply to understand (and I mean totally comprehend) the difference between gossiping and venting. But that would require a basic knowledge of English language, which Americans so often lack…

A few days ago my co-worker asked if ‘freer’ was even a word, because being an American, she was convinced such thing does not exist in the English (or should I say ‘American’?) language…

This one little question takes me back to my thoughts of how little Americans really know about their own language. The comparison of adjectives is not a highly complex grammar, is it? Rather, it is quite basic, really. However, most Americans I’ve come across make many mistakes when it comes to forming comparative and superlative degrees.

So here is a bit of an explanation:

There are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. One-syllable adjectives form their comparative and superlative degrees by adding er and est to the positive form (e.g. bright—brighter—brightest, tall—taller—tallest), while the three- or more syllable adjectives use more and most respectively (e.g. interesting—more interesting—most interesting).

Two-syllable adjectives are a bit trickier since they follow both rules. Those ending in ful or re take more and most (e.g. doubtful—more doubtful—most doubtful, obscure—more obscure—most obscure,) while those ending in er, y or ly usually add er and est (e.g. clever—cleverer—cleverest, pretty—prettier—prettiest, silly—sillier—silliest).

Thus, according to the rule, which is true for both AmE (American English) and BrE (British English), one-syllable adjectives, such as free, can only from their comparative and superlative degrees by adding er and est and not by using more and most, contrary to the popular American belief.

To answer my co-worker’s question—yes, there is such a word as ‘freer’ and it is actually grammatically correct, people!

As much as I realize that there are many differences between British English and American English, this one expression annoys the heck out of me! Most Americans (I’d even say nearly all of them because, to tell you the truth, I haven’t quite met one, who would use it correctly) say ‘wait on’ when they mean ‘wait for’. And me dear friends, these two prepositional phrases are not interchangeable!

While ‘wait for someone’ means the actual time of waiting (you know, a period when you stand somewhere waiting for a friend, a bus or a train etc to arrive …), ‘wait on someone’ actually means to serve as a waiter/waitress or as a retail clerk or even to bring somebody requested items.

So, there you go! How can such two different expressions be confused is simply beyond me! And my husband (as I’m sure many more people like him) does not understand why it makes such a big deal and why it ticks me off every time I hear someone say: “I’ll wait on you…”. And while I understand that American English is influenced by many other languages (as the whole country is a cluster of numerous different cultures) and that there are many people who simply speak English (or should I say American?) the way they speak their own language, which often result in quite improper sentences and phrases, I still claim that certain rules should not be broken. And the ones that do not happen to know any better should simply be educated instead of allowed to carry on and, what’s even worse, influence other to speak the same way. So next time someone tells me “I’ll wait on you…”, I think I will ask them to bring me a cup of coffee.