If mistakes are so wrong, why do they keep making English more interesting?

The Traditional Rule:

Errors are bad. Deviations from standard grammar, spelling, and pronunciation must be corrected, eliminated, and apologized for. Mistakes degrade language and confuse meaning.

Why It’s Broken:

Because “errors” are how language grows. What begins as a mistake often ends up as standard English within a generation or two. In fact, some of the most common forms we use today were once condemned as wrong, uneducated, or low-class.

Linguistic “errors” are not the decay of English — they are the evolution of it. Every new rule was once a rebellion.

Mistakes That Became Mainstream:

• "A whole nother"

  • Technically a “mistake.” But now idiomatic and widely accepted.

• "I could care less"

  • Logically backwards. Should be “couldn’t care less.”

  • But it's now used for sarcastic emphasis, and people do understand it that way.

• "Ain’t"

  • Once standard, then shunned, now back in poetry, dialogue, and lyrics.

  • Shakespeare used it. So did Dickens. So does Beyoncé.

• "You was"

  • Still treated as wrong in school, but in many dialects it carries a nuanced tone or rhythm.

• "Theirself" / "Themself"

  • Emerging as a gender-neutral singular reflexive.

  • Traditionalists protest, but it solves a real problem: himself or herself… or theirself?

• "Irregardless"

  • Technically a double negative. But it has meaning, tone, and now dictionary recognition.

• "Conversate"

  • Born as “street” English. Now in professional use. Why? Because it works.

Why We Fear Errors:

• Because we associate them with shame — school red pens, job rejections, “bad English.”

• Because standard grammar is falsely equated with competence.

• Because elitism uses “correctness” as a status signal.

But Here's the Truth:

Many of today’s “rules” are yesterday’s errors:

• “You” used to be plural only. Using it as singular was a mistake — now it’s the norm.

• “Its” used to be spelled “it’s”. That apostrophe was dropped due to frequent misuse.

• “Nice” used to mean foolish or naive. Now it means pleasant.
  So… was that a mistake or an upgrade?

Examples from Everyday Life: