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What spelling, grammar or semantics rules have been lost in your lifetime? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Language is always changing. At one point 'an apron' was 'a napron' while words like 'literally' are no longer literally literal. What are some language battles that have been lost in living memory and what are some others you predict will soon occur?

Edit: Non-english examples very welcome!

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[–] 14 points 1 week ago (14 children)

I miss double spaces after periods.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    We were taught single space in the mid 90s, so that can't be too recent.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    We…don’t do this anymore? I can’t even recall what I’ve been doing for this for the last 20 years.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    Autocorrect on Microsoft products turns double-space into single space by default. Gotta turn that shit of every time, it’s very frustrating.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    Don't do that unless it's a monotype font, please.

    Sincerely, typesetters everywhere.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (1 child)

    Why not? I want to have more white space between my sentences than I do between words in the same sentence. I’m writing emails, business crap, and Lemmy posts; nothing that’s going to see any love from a typesetter. Is there some more appropriate way to get what I want than hitting the spacebar twice between sentences?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    Well it's okay to break rules, right? So long as you understand how and why.

    Your version of readability skews from the norm established over centuries. Fine! Just don't expect the rules to bend to you.

    Readability for author and reader vary. Whose reading comprehension is more important? Your call.

    In some cases, it might be appropriate to break paragraph convention and isolate important sentences.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    Print publishing has 500 years of convention built on trial and error.

    As a person who learned to type on a typewriter, and then became a typesetter and publisher, and now does a lot of editing, double spaces are only of use in a monospace type face where there is no kerning possible.

    Otherwise, type with variable spaces between the letters plus variable letter sizes is physically harder to read when there are extra gaps between the sentences, despite the way you were trained (by boomers, probably) to type.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago*

    In pre-secondary education I was taught to double-space, but post I was told to single IIRC. I prefer single personally.

    Interestingly, typing two spaces on my phone is replaced by a period and a single space. It's like a vestigial mechanic from that practice. It's aware of the context of what a double space was used for, but it serves a totally different purpose to not have to type a period.

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