You’d think at Cornell University, even in the relaxed setting of an anonymous public chat, people would use reasonable spelling and grammar, but then, you’d be totally wrong:

[19:58] wut da hell is this zombie shit everybody talkin bout

This is a little strange to me–I hadn’t thought the AOL subculture permeated so far:

• wut should be capitalized
• Wut should be “What”
• da should be “the”
• “that” is missing before “everybody”
• “is” is missing before “talkin”
• “talkin” should be “talking”
• “bout” should be “about”
• There should be a question mark at the end of the phrase

Combining these corrections, we arrive at:

[19:58] What the hell is this zombie shit that everybody is talking about?

With 8 mistakes in 10 words, this has an 80% AOL count.  English grammar, today you met your maker.

3 Responses to “Ivy League Grammar”

1. John says:

   4/6/2006 at 3:19 am

   to be honest, no one cares about lingustic stigmas…in fact, no one is surprised that formal language is not entirely implemented in ivy league schools…its obvious….for example, GW bush went to Yale…period

   Reply
2. Elliott Back says:

   9/30/2007 at 2:23 pm

   I know, but isn’t it still a shame!?

   Reply
3. William and Mary Grad says:

   11/14/2009 at 4:59 pm

   Let’s also point out that the sentence should not end in a preposition, so a more accurate sentence would be:

   What the hell is this zombie **** about which everybody is talking?

   Reply