In 1762, Bishop Robert Lowth did a grave disservice to the English language when he published his Short Introduction to English Grammar. Rather than basing his grammatical rules in the usage of the best educated speakers and writers of English, he arbitrarily chose to base them on the Latin grammatical system. The result is that many modern usages in English, particularly an alarming number of rules of normative usage and Standard Written English, are based upon those false origins.

1762年，主教羅伯特?羅斯在他的《英語語法簡介》一書中犯了一個極大的錯誤。他根據的不是那些受過最好的高等教育英語人士和作家所使用的語法規則，而是武斷地選擇了拉丁語系為基礎。結果導致了英語里大量的現代用法，尤其是數目驚人的規范用法和標準書面英語，均來自于這些當初的錯誤。

These very rules continue to plague us to this day as they are still used as the foundation of many modern school English curriculums. And so, with this list, I hope to finally put an end to many of these foolish rules. [Did you see what I did?]

至今，這些語法規則依然困擾著我們，因為許多現代中學英語課程依然以這些規則作為教學基礎。因此，我希望能通過下面的這些例子最終廢除這些愚蠢的規則。

10

Between is for two only

The “tween” portion of “between” is a reference to the number 2, but the Oxford English Dictionary says this: “In all senses, between has, from its earliest appearance, been extended to more than two.” Many pedants try to enforce the use of “among” when speaking of groups larger than two. Even the pickiest speaker does not naturally say, “A treaty has been negotiated among England, France, and Germany.”

10 Between僅用于兩者之間

"between"中的 "tween"表示數字2，但牛津英語詞典解釋說： “根據其最早的出現，無論從哪一點來說，between已延伸到表示兩個以上” 。許多書呆子依然強調當大于2個以上的群體時，使用“among”。即使是最挑刺的人也不會本能地說： “英、法、德(among)之間已就條約進行了商議” 。

9

Till versus ’til

Because ’til looks like an abbreviation for “until”, some people believe that this word should always be spelt ’til (some don’t object to leaving off the apostrophe). However, “till” has been in regular use in English for over 800 years, longer than ’til. It is completely correct English to say “till”.

9 Till與’til

因為’til像是"until"的縮寫，因此，有些人認為"until"這個字應始終拼寫為：’til(有些人贊成省略撇號)。不過，"till"在英語中已經使用了800多年了，而且遠遠長于’til。英語中使用"till"是完全正確的。

8

Persuade versus convince

Some people have the strange belief that you must “persuade” someone to “convince” them, but you cannot “convince” a person. In fact, persuade is a synonym (means the same thing) for convince - and this usage goes back to the 16th century. It can mean both to attempt to convince, and to succeed in convincing. It is not common anymore to say things like “I am persuaded that you are an idiot” - though this is also correct English.