Come on baby, light my William Safire.
I know I'm alone on my own little planet, "Little Prince"-style, with this one, but I'm going to sally forth anyway: I hate it when you ask people how they are, and they say, "I'm well."
I'm sure a few people reading this say it. But you know what? You're not well, you're good. If you were well, you would've been well 15 years ago -- you know, back when everyone was just good?
This one is driven by a handful of sticklers (who are wrong, by the way) and a herd of people who are paranoid that they're stupid. And you know why they're paranoid? Because they are stupid.
It's perfectly fine to say "I'm good." It's grammatically acceptable, and you know what? It doesn't sound obnoxious and prissy, either.
I have a thing for conversational English. Yes, I recognize that rules are important, because everyone is getting more and more stupid and bastardizing the language. We can discuss those irritating bastardizations later, I'm game.
But I hate prissy English that doesn't sound remotely like conversation, particularly in informal pieces and blogs and such. I don't like to sit just quietly and smell the flowers. (That's an actual line from "Ferdinand The Bull," a book my daughter and I both love, a book whose author dare not split the sacred infinitive, so I stumble on that line every time. Sit just quietly? Come on, you're an enormous bull! You might like to just sit quietly, but you most certainly don't like to sit just quietly.)
So that's my pet peeve of the day: I'm well. Oof, it makes me want to kick someone just writing those words!
I think this is going to be my grouchy work blog. Turn the screw, motherfuckers!
Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
Salon.com
Comments
I think a grouchy work blog is a good idea.
Get down with your bad self, Heather. Grouchy about grammar, usage and language in this age of texting and emoticons is a good thing. We who make our living writing need to get all Steve Seagal on the asses of folks who still can't use "it's" properly. That's the one that makes me want to eat bleach.
Go on and pet your peeve. Just not in public.
I believe these are the same people who think saying "she went to the movies with my friends and I" makes them sound smarter than "... my friends and me." Nothing like being snooty AND wrong.
It's not the greatest grammar, but it's better than "I'm well" I have to say.
Now, I used to have an issue with this guy who, whenever you asked how he was, always said (con gusto): "if I was any better I'd be twins!"
Not to pick at nits, but rules change and "everyone getting more and more stupid and bastardizing the language" is why we're not speaking Anglo-Saxon anymore.
Although it might be nice if we all still sounded like we walked out of Shakespeare - just leave the rapiers and daggers at home, though.
I say "fine," "great," "groovy," or "swell," depending on my mood, and the person who asked me.
My question is this. What do you do with people who assume that just because you ask them "how are you" means that you want to hear about all their drama and woe is me tales.
Just say "fine" and move along, please!
Many of the same English-speakers - myself included - would eat their etiquette books before replying with "good".
"I'm OK" - "I'm fine" - "I'm good" etc have all slipped into my plastic bag full of banal cliches.
"Hi - How are you?"
"I'm a bundle of living joy!"
"Hi - How are you?"
"I'm all warm and cuddly!"
both 100% smile getters.......both leave the greeting moment smiling....
exit - smilin'
Thom: Hi Heather, how are you?
Heather: None of your fuckin' business. Now get outta my face before I call the cops.
You can dress or decorate a room formally or informally. Or you can live in a sty in dirty clothes. Conversational, or informal, English needn’t be foul. Tim, Jonathan, Blake, and Jean all understand this. Blogging can certainly be informal; it needn’t be sloppy.
Neither “good” nor “well” is an ideal choice as an answer to the subject question, but it’s a matter not of grammar but of vocabulary. “Well” is certainly better than “good,” but has an unduly medical connotation. “Good” is becoming increasingly common, but has too strong a connection with morality. “I’m fine, thank you, and you?” is my first choice, and unless the person I’m addressing is a film buff, I shamelessly steal from Katherine Hepburn and add, “if you don’t ask for details.”
Ferdinand would say “bull” to the idea that the original text was a stuffy effort not to split an infinitive. The author simply placed the adverb, “just” next to the other adverb, “quietly” it modifies for emphasis.
There’s an air of redundancy in the notion of a “banal cliché,” and I was curious as to where there was any question about “linking verbs.”
I counted no fewer than nine English errors in one three-line post, which of course included the “its” versus “it’s” mistake, which quite rightly drives Tim crazy. This is not being informal or conversational; it’s dissin’ the lingo we dig.
Sometimes I say, "Would you like a social response or a real one?" Some of my friends actually say, "Just a social one." and I respond, "I'm fine thanks. How are you?"
I'm not a morning person, so it's particularly difficult when the question comes befoer 10:00 a.m.
As to the line in 'Ferdinand the Bull' I think 'sit just quietly' sounds better than 'just sit quietly'. Ever thought the auther did it on purpose? Thats how it was publish so it's probably how it was wanted to be, you need to respect that.
Full of passion though, which is always nice and I do sympathise- we all have our 'pet peeves'.
To quote the linked bit: But when you say, “I am well,” you're using well as a predicate adjective. That's fine, but most sources say well is reserved to mean “healthy” when it's used in this way (1, 3, 4). So if you are recovering from a long illness and someone is inquiring about your health, it's appropriate to say, “I am well,” but if you're just describing yourself on a generally good day and nobody's asking specifically about your health, a more appropriate response is, “I am good.”
Anyway, I generally say, "Fine," when asked by people who don't know me, and to my ear "good" sounds hickish. You're not good - you're somewhere between wicked and tolerable at best. You may be FEELING good, but you are, factually, not good.
I have to agree with John, " Not to pick at nits, but rules change and "everyone getting more and more stupid and bastardizing the language" is why we're not speaking Anglo-Saxon anymore."
I like our bastardized version of that uptight language. In addition, I understand that English as it exists over there is dead--static. At least we're putting some life back in the old beast. Let those prickly pears across the pond bear the burden of conservation--it's not in our blood.