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Our first thought on encountering this lament to the English language was, yeah, tell it like it is. Then we had a second thought. Those are the dangerous ones. Sometimes they lead to third thoughts, and we all know what kind of trouble that causes. We are extremely disciplined, however, and controlled our mind. If only we could exert the same influence over weather — it’s destined to be a scorcher and we’re headed inland.

Right, we had a second thought (the problem with thoughts is they tend to snowball). Perhaps we’ve read too many novels. Or perhaps we’ve spent too much time listening to people (one close associate describes this activity as “eavesdropping”, but we find the connotation of that word to be distasteful). But we wonder: has the English language ever achieved, oh, 75% accuracy when written or read by the average user? It’s not an easy language (as always, we rely on was, were, and the subjunctive case as an example). There are rules which make no sense. Words spelled the same with different meanings and pronunciations

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Yes, we promised brevity today, so we’ll sum up our feelings: we couldn’t agree with the article more.

• English, Languishing: One writer wonders why no one seems to care about grammar and diction anymore.