The World Was Built on Broken English

The world runs on broken English ... I work at a large multinational company with employees from all over the world, and I constantly hear basic grammar mistakes like: "we has" "I has" "I doesn't ... and so on, with horrible pronunciation — like 'health check' becoming 'hols check,' or 'I think' turning into 'I sink.' And I could go on. And these people are highly educated — with degrees, even PhDs. The other day I made a mistake too — I wrote "Don't spoiler it" and my friend corrected me: 'It's don't spoil it.' And yeah, he's right. But honestly? I'd still use "Don't spoiler it" because I feel like more people would understand what I mean that way. And this isn’t just a few people — it’s the majority. And I doubt it’s unique to this company; it’s probably the same across most multinational companies and organizations. That’s the thing with English — compared to languages like German or French, it’s shockingly easy to learn badly… and still get by. But the truth is, I end up picking up their bad habits too. Just look at the example above. I don’t know… I have mixed feelings. I don’t like it when people butcher a language. Sometimes it’s not even broken English, to be honest — It’s shattered English, but I highly doubt that most people care. I once asked a few people, and they said they don’t mind it — so I guess I have to accept it. The lingua franca of the world is NOT English ... It's BROKEN English.

Apr 14, 2025 - 22:11

The world runs on broken English ... I work at a large multinational company with employees from all over the world, and I constantly hear basic grammar mistakes like: "we has" "I has" "I doesn't ... and so on, with horrible pronunciation — like 'health check' becoming 'hols check,' or 'I think' turning into 'I sink.' And I could go on. And these people are highly educated — with degrees, even PhDs.

The other day I made a mistake too — I wrote "Don't spoiler it" and my friend corrected me: 'It's don't spoil it.' And yeah, he's right. But honestly? I'd still use "Don't spoiler it" because I feel like more people would understand what I mean that way.

And this isn’t just a few people — it’s the majority. And I doubt it’s unique to this company; it’s probably the same across most multinational companies and organizations.

That’s the thing with English — compared to languages like German or French, it’s shockingly easy to learn badly… and still get by.

But the truth is, I end up picking up their bad habits too. Just look at the example above.

I don’t know… I have mixed feelings. I don’t like it when people butcher a language. Sometimes it’s not even broken English, to be honest — It’s shattered English, but I highly doubt that most people care. I once asked a few people, and they said they don’t mind it — so I guess I have to accept it.

The lingua franca of the world is NOT English ... It's BROKEN English.