word usage - "I'm going to help you like I promised." Good English? Informal? Only colloquially acceptable? Wrong?



I've often heard this kind of sentence where one substitutes the conjunction "like" for "as". Is it acceptable in written English? Is it considered wrong in spoken English?



Answer



As Bryan Garner puts it (in GMAU, 3e): "It is acceptable in casual English; it isn't yet in the category of unimpeachable English." In other words, don't write this way if you want to be considered educated. But, if you correct someone who speaks this way, you'll probably be considered a "grammar Nazi".


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