Language is something that is constantly changing in society. We are all taught proper English in school, yet we still resort to using slang and speaking incorrectly. English is constantly being modified to be “politically correct” or to make certain words “less offensive”. Language adjustments are always happening, and as the years progress we are drifting further and further away from speaking correctly.

Certain words in the English language have been so overused, that they have lost their true meaning. “Love” and “hate” are used in context to describe common situations or people, when in reality, both words have a strong meaning that should truly only be used for a small number of situations or people. Love and hate aren’t as big of a deal as they use to be. In today's society, people throw these words around like they don’t mean anything. Along with the ignorant uses of words, society has also significantly decreased in usages of correct grammar. The average teenager in America rarely knows the difference between “you’re” and “your”, or “they’re”, “their”, and “there”. When asked how he/she is doing, they typically respond with “I’m good! How are you?”, instead of the correct way, “I’m well! How are you?”. English in today’s society has become more accepting of these slang words and incorrect usages, so our culture keeps drifting further from what’s actually correct, and leaning more towards what’s socially acceptable.

Since our society is offended by mostly everything, words have been modified to become more “politically correct” or “less offensive”. As George Carlin pointed out in his Euphemisms speech, words such as “crippled” have been changed to “differently abled”, “throw up” has been changed to “protein spillage”, and “dying” has been changed to “passing away”. These new adjustments have been changed to soften the blow of the condition, as if the conditions may lessen in extremity by a simple change of the name.

Speaking incorrectly and using incorrect grammar is avoidable. If students would be willing to take time to learn these lessons, the problem could be fixed. However, most students aren’t willing to go through that much effort, or sacrifice that much of their time. “Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers” (Orwell, 707).

Orwell states that bad English resulted from the spread of bad habits. These bad habits have become more widely used, and now we have a culture of bad English speakers. As the years progress, the increase of incorrect English has also increased a lot. This is reversible as long as our culture is willing to work on breaking these bad habits and willing to learn correct grammar.