I am continually correcting the children’s speech. Last night I had to tell them it was “couldn’t have” instead of “couldn’t of”. And now everyone is telling me, that now that I live in New York I must go with the flow. “You did good” is apparently acceptable, whereas “you did well”, or “you have done well” while correct, is not commonly used. One of my friends told me that she has even heard “You done did good”. Shudder. Apparently here one is allowed to butcher the English language and get away with it. Don’t even get me started on the spelling….
My grammarian head is hurting.
In the Pink 
Don’t believe what everyone tells you. I grew up in NJ and we were expected to speak properly. “You did good” was not acceptable. It also bothers the living daylights out of me when people say, “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less”. Then again, maybe that’s just parental influence. Unfortunately, speaking properly is apparently going down the drain throughout the country, not just here in the Northeast. Drives me bonkers.
JJ – “You did good” was not acceptable.
That’s right! In Joysey, it would have been “You done good” 🙂 🙂 🙂
No, no, no! Do not “go with the flow”! It’s one thing to break a rule for deliberate effect – quite another thing entirely to break it out of ignorance or callous carelessness! “You did good” should only be applied to acts of charity; “you did well” is for achievement. “You done good” may be used in a humorous, “aw, gee, shucks, I don’ know good grammar from my Gramma!” kind of way, but never in a serious sense, and preferably not within earshot of impressionable children.
HSM – How do they speak here?
Most people would say “How do they talk here?”
🙂
Don’t stop correcting them. It bugs me to no end the way people butcher the language and who cares if everyone else is doing it. I correct my children all the time and often have to bite my tongue to stop myself from correcting random adults! 😉
Oh, by all means, please teach them to speak correctly! We need to have some children who know proper usage of English!
Please teach them to speak correctly. That was probably my biggest issue at the group home where I used to work. Teaching the kids to write properly instead of writing the way they spoke was impossible. I’d see papers that read, “We, uh, had went to the store n’then met wit the guys and got coffee and after we seen Mrs. K on da way back” (spelling issues intentional)
Not only is this a NY problem but a Frum problem. How often do we say “I’m eating by the “fill in the blank family” for Shabbos. Usually i eat with someone or at their house ,never “by” their house that would be weird. Would i sit on their lawn or is the curb “By” enough? Ok, I’m amusing myself here.
Not only is this a NY problem but a Frum problem.
It’s “Yeshivish”-lite. Many MO are being infected by the malady of Yeshivish.