Any resignation with regard to the rules of French grammar, in other words before an effort of logic, contributes to the progressive disappearance of the language (see “The reform of the past participle, a reasoned proposition to grasp”, The dutyJuly 6, 2024). When we agree the participle in “the apples I ate”, we are not just submitting to a rule, we are answering a question, we are determining what the relative pronoun designates. And we avoid gradually anglicizing the French language.
Should we raze a hill because some people are incapable of climbing it? Because after having flattened the past participle, we will of course move on to something else: the easy way is a slippery slope. It is grammar that we make the mistake of not teaching (once assimilated, there is no longer any difficulty, we simply answer a question). Let us not lose sight of the fact that grammar is not only a linguistic tool: there is a grammar in every discipline, that is to say, knowledge of the structures of this discipline, without which the latter risks never being assimilated.
“No less than 14 pages in The correct use de Grevisse,” the author of the article exclaims indignantly. And how many pages are there in an engineering manual on building a bridge, how many in a medical treatise on the success of an operation? Spoken French, if it is not supported by writing, becomes an arbitrary jargon over which one loses all control: one then becomes a stranger to one’s own language. This is deplored in relation to the increasingly slang language of young people, who have not been taught the specific nature of their language and who, as a result, use English indifferently. How can they love the French language if they do not know it?
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