Spoken Language versus Written Language

Question

Does anyone knows the difference? I know that the written language sometimes is so formal. My friend told me that if I use written language to speak especially to native speakers, it becomes funny to listen. Can anyone give me examples, maybe?

Yankee · Accepted Answer

Hi Oerwahfm

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

If you do not use any contractions, your speech will tend to sound awkward or overly formal. These are commonly used contractions, for example:

'm, 's, 're, 've, 'd, 'll, n't

In addition, if your grammar is overly formal, that could end up sounding stiff and stilted. For example, this would sound normal:

Elizabeth: "I love ice cream."
Oerwahfm: "Me too!" (not "I too")

There are some expressions ("Me too", for example) that contain grammar "errors", but they are so extremely commonly used that you should simply learn to use them.

Kooyeen · Answer

YankeeThere are some expressions ("Me too", for example) that contain grammar "errors", but they are so extremely commonly used that you should simply learn to use them.

Hi Amy,
I don't want to start to discuss "descriptivism vs prescriptivism" (we already know what we think), but what you just said got me thinking. Saying that some colloquial forms are "errors", even if you put them in quotation marks, so to speak, might be understood by learners as if there's really something wrong with the way people speak, and mislead them into thinking that formal written english is the only really correct kind of English (which is already what most ESL learners think, unfortunately).
I think a good way to teach including both "prescriptive" formal English and colloquial English is to teach about registers. That way, colloquial forms and formal English are both equally correct, if considered in the right contexts. But you are a super cool teacher, I know you know all this already.

See you around.

Yankee · Answer

Hi Kooyeen

My comment was based on the assumption that learners are often taught these prescriptively correct forms. And my assumption was also based on long experience.

In addition, language students often attempt word-for-word translations of common expressions used in their own native language where the expression is not only common, but also grammatically correct. For example, in German the equivalent of "Me too" is "Ich auch". The word "ich" is the subject form ("I"). So, in German, the subject form is used, and that is BOTH prescriptively and descriptively correct in German. The fact that we use the object form ("me") in English is therefore often hard for a German to swallow.

Lastly, it's hard to come up with an explanation that sounds even remotely logical about why "Me too" is fine, but "Me do too" isn't.

EDIT:
In the case of "Me too", it's difficult to restrict that to only an informal or very low register. But, you're right: Register does play a large role in what sounds natural and what doesn't.

CalifJim · Answer

oerwahfmMy friend told me that if I use written language to speak, especially to native speakers, it becomes funny to listen to

Yes, here are some examples. If you actually expressed yourself as illustrated in the literary examples, it would really be quite humorous! My "translations" into spoken language are approximate.

Written, literary: "It was with a singular jumble of sadness and pleasure that I used to linger about my native place until the reddening winter sun admonished me that it was time to start on my returning walk." (David Copperfield, 1850, Dickens)

Spoken: I used to visit the place I was born, which was a unique mix of sad and happy memories. I would stay until the sun began to set, and then return.

Written, literary: "The family sat down to table, and a frugal meal of cold viands was deposited before them." (Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 1891, Hardy)

Spoken: The family sat down for lunch and were served a meal of cheap cold-cuts.

Written, literary: "...despite my natural vigor, I am no pugilist, ..." (Lolita, 1951, Nabokov)
Spoken: I may be naturally healthy, but I'm not a professional fighter.

Written, literary: "...I am in danger of being misunderstood by those people, all too numerous, who cannot distinguish a belief in what is the case from an advocacy of what ought to be the case ... (The Selfish Gene, 1989 edition, Dawkins)
Spoken: There are a lot of people -- too many, really -- who won't understand me because they can't tell the difference between saying that I think something is true and saying that I think it should be true.

CJ

MrPernickety · Answer

YankeeElizabeth: "I love ice cream."
Oerwahfm: "Me too!" (not "I too")

There are some expressions ("Me too", for example) that contain grammar "errors", but they are so extremely commonly used that you should simply learn to use them.

Or, if the third person wish to sound even more formal, he/she can add:

Elizabeth: "I love ice cream."
Oerwahfm: "Me too!" (not "I too")
Patty: "Me three" (not "me too" or "I too")

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