Grammar Nerds: I’ve recently noticed yet another Australian linguistic quirk. Many people, when cheering for their favorite sports team, add a “the” in there. For example, last weekend I heard lots of folks say “Go the Wallabies!” See, doesn’t that sound weird? I kept trying to explain the weirdness to the Snook by, like, diagramming the sentence. “Go” obviously makes it an imperative statement, so “the Wallabies” should be who the command is directed at. But you never use a definite article when you’re talking to someone, do you? I can’t imagine a Yank saying “Come over here, the team!” or “Silence, the cadets!” or even “Come on the Cubs!”. I don’t remember ever hearing such a thing in England either. Like I said, it’s just weird.
Important Note
This site features content going all the way back to 2000. The posts you’ll read reflect my views and writing style at the time. While I have gone back to clean up a few of them, I think it’s important not to sanitise too much. This site is a record of who I am and how I’ve grown. Any blog post written years ago may not reflect who I am today, nor how I would write about the same topic today.
Comments
3 responses to “”
it actually doesn’t sound weird to me. a clear indication that i’ve been brainwashed by my aussie.
You know where all those extra ‘the’s come from don’t you? From sentences like ‘I have to go to hospital’ (instead of ‘go to THE hospital’ for all you Aussies)
tee-hee
-gg70
Hahaha… That’s so right, gg!