How do we know what's right or wrong in English? Languages such as French and Spanish each has an official(官方的) organization that tells you what's correct. But there is nothing like that in English. So what can we do?
There is, of course, Standard English. This is the kind of English you read in newspapers or in formal letters. It is also the English you learn at school or in textbooks.
However, Standard English is not official English. And unbelievably, linguists（语言学家） think Standard English is on the same level as all other types of English such as Cockney English, Yorkshire English, South African English, Australian English, Singaporean English… And according to linguists, there is no such thing as Standard Spoken English.
English is changing all the time. Every year, new words appear and others disappear. Words change too. For example, for many years, the Latin word “agendum” was the accepted singular form and “agenda” was the plural form. However, these days, very few people use the Latin-sounding“agendum”, with “agenda” being the accepted singular form, and “agendas” the plural.
Newspapers each has their own style when they write certain things. For example，The Guardian puts dates like “21 July 2011”(with the day first, followed by the month and no commas). However, the news agency Reuters writes them like this “July 21, 2011”(with the month first, and a comma(逗号) between the day and the year). Other newspapers have different ways of doing it too. So, as you can see, there's no one “correct” way —there's a variety of ways and each one is acceptable.
Next time someone tells you that something is wrong, tell them that it isn't wrong, It is just English.
(Each answer should be no more than four words)
