Playing Fast and Loose with the English Language

A reader asks: My wife just said about some left over green veggies “ Don’t worry about those, I will salad them.” Grounds for divorce?

Ha!

My interpretation here is that your wife regards the English language the same way I do, i.e., as a tool for us to use to communicate, rather than a set of hard and fast rules.  She’s probably also aware that the way we use the language changes naturally over time, and that nobody living today knows exactly how we’ll be speaking and writing 50 years hence. I respect people who are so familiar with the language that they can make their own charming little contributions to it. In this case, introducing the use of the word “salad” as a verb.

I would point out, however, that there is a difference between this and simple, substandard grammar.  Someone asked the other day if the sentence, “My father taught my brother and I how to play poker” was acceptable.  The answer, of course, is that it’s acceptable only to people who don’t understand English grammar, and you don’t want to be among them.