Grammar and speed have always been in tension. Spoken language has always been faster and looser than written language — we slur, contract, abbreviate, and leave things implied in speech in ways we rarely do in careful writing. This is not a failure of grammar; it is grammar adapting to context. The register of conversation has its own rules, even when those rules are not the rules of the grammar book.

What is different now is that the speed of spoken language has migrated into written language at scale. The conditions of online communication — the expectation of immediate response, the character limits, the sheer volume of messages produced and consumed every day — have created a written register that operates at the pace of speech. And when writing moves at the speed of talking, what happens to grammar is worth examining.

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