More people expect bad grammar than good

I agree with the sentiments of Mark Cox (Letters, DW 5 January), who is just as confused as me regarding the work of Adam Ellis that appeared a month earlier (Inspired, DW 1 December), where he rebrands the ice cream van for an adult audience (particularly ‘Is it chilli in hear’).

A bit of a linguistic purist myself, I came to begrudgingly accept, a while ago, that language, just like design, is an organic communication, driven by the masses. It still infuriates me when people foresake their adverbs, although I sense the latter will die out soon anyway. Even Apple Computer ‘think different’.

In the early days of television, advertising was the domain of superiorly-educated folk who maintained the Queen’s English. Nowadays, advertising is the main culprit for poor English, without a care about where to put apostrophes, how to use adverbs, and – wait a minute – was that a singular noun or a compound adjective?

So, we will accept that it’s simpler to write quick, rather than quickly. And, if it scans with more impact, we may break the rules because, sadly, more people seem to expect poor grammar than correct. And I might suggest fewer remarks about less creatives, if Cox is being really picky!

Traci Rochester, Redflint, Bristol BS7 8JW