“Who kidnapped these two words?!”

by | Mar 6, 2019

Don’t you think we need a break from the intensive January and February posts?

Yeah, I agree. Here ya go.

I don’t often jump on my writing rebel soapbox (not here, anyway 😎 ).

But, today is different.

‘Cause this is creepy.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers weird.

A mini rant

At the risk of angering the Google ranking gods, this post is short-and-sweet.

A barely-400-words mini rant, as it were.

To spare you from counting: 401 words, including the photo captions.

“What’s up, Kathie?”

Sometime in 2015 (and it has ratcheted up since then),

People began replacing ‘has’ and ‘does’ with the word ‘is.’

Watch for it with newscasters and talk show hosts (although it’s bleeding over to everyday people like you and me, too).

Here are three examples:

“How is this help you?”
“He is followed the story.”
Is it have a name?”

Use ‘does,’ ‘has,’ and ‘does,’ and I’m good.

Now what?

Let’s start g-e-n-t-l-y calling people out on this weird faux pas. (Gently, because – otherwise – we may not have many friends left by this time next year!)

Why care about this?

It’s one of those taking-back-the-language things.

Just for funsies, let me throw a Jeff Foxworthy-ism out:

I understand (as a Grammar Maven 😉 ) I ‘might could’ get away with this easier than you.

Quote me and point them here. Then, it isn’t your fault – ha!

"Who kidnapped these two words?"

“Who kidnapped these two words?”

Hey! Let’s create a new superhero!

A friend of mine, Brian K. Morris (www.RisingTide.pub), is a genre-blending author.

Mysteries, comics, superheroes (and making sure the white hats win).

Brian’s wife is talented with costuming.

So, I’m thinking …

… the three of us might collaborate on this project.

Give us a coupla years.

Then look for it at your local movie theater <wink, wink>:

Kathie York
starring in

The Writing Rebel


Your Takeaway: Can we all use the correct words when we speak? (I mean … c’mon!)

Join the Conversation: Please help me appease those Google gods a smidge.
They like it when you leave a comment and/or share the post.

Tell us about a time you

• Noticed someone using a wrong word in a news story.
• Read something and wondered, “Did anyone check this?”
• Gave up trying to explain why a word was the wrong word.

Share this post and join the conversation in the comments section.

I look forward to reading your stories!

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Kathie York, CSQE
Queen of Non-Overwhelm
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