English (the language) always gives an impression of being positive. For example, when little kids are making mistake, it will refer to as 'being creative' instead of 'being incorrect'. So as my title, isn't it the opposite? I assume asking how "old" is not very polite, so I usually avoid it and ask 'what's your age'
Learn English – Why how ‘old’ are you, not how ‘young’ are you
terminology
Related Solutions
The term is "grand theft" and the category it goes into (based on what is being stolen) is "auto".
Grand theft, also called grand larceny, designates theft that is large in magnitude or serious in penological consequences. Grand theft is contrasted with petty theft, theft that is of smaller magnitude or lesser seriousness.
What constitutes "grand theft" depends on the states. In California, which is where the games tend to be set, "grand theft" is defined as stealing something valued at over $950.
Grand theft is committed when the value of stolen property exceeds $950. Theft is also considered grand theft when more than $250 in crops or marine life-forms are stolen, “when the property is taken from the person of another,” or when the property stolen is an automobile, farm animal, or firearm. There are a number of criminal statutes in the California Penal Code defining grand theft in different amounts. Most common amount is $950.
This is in contrast to "petty theft".
If it helps, imagine that there's a comma or a dash between "theft" and "auto" and that it's an item on a list, not a full phrase.
- Grand theft, auto
- Grand theft - auto
There are a multitude of ways we can approach this. There are a lot of classifications and labels for things that can be reasonably marked as wrong in language. For instance, an error might happen in speech or it could happen in writing. It might happen more often in informal contexts or in formal ones prone to hypercorrection. Some errors appear everywhere.
Heck, some errors are actually intentional, and aim to reduce the perceived formality of the message. The errors discussed here are assumed to be unintentional.
This answer classifies the types of errors on what area of language study they concern.
Phonological errors
foon speeding
"phono-", according to LDOCE, is a prefix used for whatever relates to sound. Thus, phonological errors are almost always seen in speech, much less in writing. Notably, sometimes they're intentional, and add humorous effect to what's being told.
"foon speeding" is a classic example of spoonerism, where your mind transposes segments of words or phrases.
Morphosyntactic or Grammatical errors
I can't knows how to correct write this sentence.
Morpho-syntax is just a more formal term for "grammar". This is the type of error we're all familiar with: When either the words aren't formed correctly, or their order in the sentence doesn't sound right.
The sentence above is wrong (ungrammatical) because "correct" belongs to the category of adjectives and it can't directly modify a verb like "write". Also after modal verbs like "can", we should always use a non-inflected basic form of the verb, and "knows" is at the very least non-standard.
Semantic errors (errors of logic or meaning)
The little whale is eating the purple sky.
Sometimes, sentences are semantically erroneous. They don't make sense! Semantics deals with meaning in language. An utterance may be right grammatically, but make no sense at all. And that would mean it's nonsensical, not ungrammatical.
The sentence above suffers from a category mistake. No matter how hard the little whale tries, it won't be able to eat the sky.
Word Choice
A very important part of semantics is choosing words. A lot of mistakes learners (such as I) make are word choice errors that either fall into the semantic, or morphosyntactic category.
Prime examples are "affect" vs. "effect", and "lose" vs. "loose".
Pragmatic errors
A: How does the food taste?
B: I love playing tennis!
Some exchanges contain neither grammatically nor semantically wrong sentences, but in the whole, don't make sense. That's where pragmatics comes into play; study of use of language in social contexts.
When you ask your friend, Alex, "Do you have five bucks?", you're not actually wondering if your friend has five dollars. You're indirectly requesting five dollars from him. That's not what the semantics of the sentence can tell you, but pragmatics. That sentence was used when you're buying a sandwich, and it doesn't make sense to suddenly wonder whether Alex has five dollars or not when you're buying something, unless you want to borrow that money.
Punctuation, the grayer area
I don't understand what's wrong with this sentence,
Another type of error people mistake for grammatical errors is an obvious error in punctuation. Punctuation has always been the grayer area. There is no one universal standard for punctuation, and punctuation marks as common as commas and semicolons are major sources of conflicts and discussions on these matters.
However, like all of the subjective topics discussed everyday everywhere, despite so much gray areas, there are some rules almost everyone and every manual of style agrees with. The sentence above should not end in a comma, but either a period, or an ellipsis, which not everyone agrees what the sign for should be, by the way.
The most common punctuation error, universally accepted to be an error, is plenken. That is, adding an inappropriate space before the punctuation mark, which does not exist in English.
Further Reading
Next time you see a sentence on ELL that quite doesn't sound right, don't immediately comment it's ungrammatical! Here is a list of fun and informative resources if you wanted to read further:
[1]: Speech errors, Wikipedia
[2]: Common Word Choice Errors, University of Wisconsin Colleges
[3]: Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously
[4]: That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is
Best Answer
This is not really a property of the language per se as the surrounding culture in which it exists. It is still very if not equally important to understand this if you want to effectively communicate in a given culture. Read about political correctness.
You don't gain youth as time passes, you gain "oldness." So the oldness is what's measured. Measuring something you don't collect outside of a scientific context is weird. It's similar to asking "how much air is in this cup" as you are pouring water into it - you don't really want to know how much air is in the cup, but how much water.
I would say in the US at least - it isn't unless among family, people who know each other well, or authority contexts where age verification is called for, such a police offer asking the age of a teenager who is doing something they shouldn't. If you are older than the person and taking on a mentor role, it should be OK to ask. Another permissible context for asking age is collecting details on people registering, signing up for something, or attending an event.
But asking "how young are you" doesn't make it polite, it makes it seem like you are trying to deliberately not use the word "old". I would avoid this if you are trying to be polite.