Language, for all its supposed structure and rules, is a beautifully chaotic system built less on logic and more on the shifting tides of human interaction. We’re taught from childhood to treat grammar like sacred law, drilled with notions of right and wrong, proper and improper, eloquent and lazy. But once you peel back the polished exterior of textbooks, you’ll find a messier, more vibrant reality: language is fake!
Or, at the very least, language is not what we’ve been led to believe it is. Indeed, language itself is far less rigid when it comes to correctness, and it instead loves to live in the spaces of communication and context.
So, what does it really mean for language to be correct? And—perhaps the most important question—if language is shaped more by people than by principle, then who are we really trying to sound right for? Click through this gallery to discover more.