Benny's bad grammar

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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Sandlot

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fairyqueen — 12 years ago(July 29, 2013 09:14 PM)

Has anybody else noticed that Benny often uses bad grammar in this film. "Now we can't play no more" and "We gotta buy us a ball" are two examples. I wonder if this was an artistic choice on the part of the filmmakers. I've noticed that works of fiction, especially ones set in the past, do this to make a character seem low class (because they don't have much education). Do you think that was the case with Benny? In this setting, school was easily available but he could have had relatives who didn't have much education (possibly immigrants from Mexico) that affected his speech. Or it could have been meant to make him sound casual or something. Or it could have meant nothing.
What do you think?

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divinityemotions — 12 years ago(August 07, 2013 05:06 PM)

I think they used to talk like that back in the day. Usually in the movies only upper class people had proper grammar. Plus this boys were just kids. I remember hearing " we can't play no more" a lot from kids their age.
If there are no dogs and cats in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

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larryrf — 12 years ago(August 19, 2013 08:22 PM)

That's the way many people talk where I'm from (south Georgia)

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herbsuperb — 12 years ago(August 22, 2013 10:57 AM)

Just street talk. Different from school talk. I'm sure he knows it is bad grammer. Just doesn't matter. Ain't no thing. I'm sure that during his interviews to play ball for the Dodger's his grammer was fine.

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HOKfilms — 12 years ago(January 22, 2014 07:04 PM)

Not only that, but a horrible speller. He spelled Babe Ruth "Babe Ruthe"
I Emily Blunt

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pasqualt3 — 11 years ago(January 26, 2015 09:23 AM)

My father didn't learn English until he was 10, and I learned a few of his bad habits. It's usually isolated to the southwest or areas with many non native English speakers.

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bradleynationals — 10 years ago(June 29, 2015 10:49 AM)

Dude just cuz you use bad grammar doesnt mean you don't know good grammar like I know good grammar but most of the time I don't use good grammar

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harmisjack — 10 years ago(August 02, 2015 04:27 PM)

Well this movie was supposed to take place in the 60's, so it made sense the way he spoke.

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DracTarashV — 10 years ago(September 25, 2015 11:13 PM)

Yeah, because all the other kids in the movie had perfect grammar that would make the English proud. Get real! He was a kid using street talk, or better yet real talk.
Even educated adults like to bastardize the english language, you know what I'm saying playa? Sometimes words flow better your own way.
Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

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thechangeling — 9 years ago(January 14, 2017 05:41 PM)

So just because Benny is Latino, he's automatically from Mexico? I presume you've never looked at a world map. There are many Latin countries! What an idiotic comment.