English Language

McDonald’s English: I’m not lovin’ it!

I have mixed feelings about McDonald’s. I used to work on the grill in a McDonald’s Restaurant in Paris, flipping burgers…or actually, not flipping them, just placing them on the grill pulling down the grill cover, which would then automatically lift up after just 39 seconds and taking them off the grill quickly to place them on the awaiting “garniture” of the cheeseburgers, hamburgers, McBacons and Big Macs.

I'm lovin' it

i’m lovin’ it

Now, I am an English Teacher, I actually started teaching English 20 years ago to get away from a succession of McJobs, which weren’t developping my intellect in any way. I find McDonald’s is interfering with the language with phrases like “i’m lovin’ it” which is not good English. I tell my students love is a state verb, which isn’t usually seen in the continuous form loving. Other state verbs include  like, agree, hate, believe, understand, know and want. It should be “I love it” or “I hate it”, “I like it” or “I don’t like it” not “i’m lovin’ it”. Also using a lower case i, rather than a capital I for the personal pronoun is still a mistake, even in this era of textspeak.

It is not just with their slogan that McDonald’s are taking liberties with the English language. In their adverts for wraps they are described as “more tasty” (this is possible but tastier is more common) and “more fresh“, surely with a single syllable adjective like fresh we add -er for the comparative to make fresh, fresher.



This may be a local error in translation: “The order is being prepareing exclusively for you….”

"...is being prepareing..."

“…is being prepareing…”

Dear Ronald could you please stop clowning around with the English Language?