Sunday, November 22, 2009

Dear Facebook, What's Going On Here?

Our brother-in-law has befriended us on Facebook, which continues to taunt us with its crazy grammar:

You are now friend with [INSERT SECRET IDENTITY HERE].
Friend? FRIEND? How about friends? We cut Facebook a bit of slack for using "their" as an all-purpose pronoun. We look the other way when we see things that say "you have 1 new messages." But we can't think of a scenario where "friend" would be the correct choice.

Have you considered a copy editor, Facebook? We know quite a few who're looking.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, in the UK where Facebook originated, I believe, 'their' is used as an all-purpose pronoun all the time. It may, perhaps, not be strictly the most accurate grammar, but it is considered perfectly acceptable. I certainly find it a much more handy solution than the US way!

Martha Brockenbrough said...

"Their" is accepted as an all-purpose pronoun in most places here, too. That doesn't mean we have to love it.

Facebook did not originate in the UK, though.

Andygirl said...

The same things drive me nuts on Facebook. Not enough to make me actually quite the FaceCrack, mind you.