The Ear Knows

Years of studying English vocabulary and grammar will only take a student so far.

Here, for example, are four unofficial rules that native speakers know but "don't realize they know". They can be illustrated by example:

Right: my brother's car      Wrong: the car of my brother
Right: abso-freakin'-lutely      Wrong: absolute-freakin'-ly
Right: what did you say he ate?   Wrong: what did you shout he ate?
Right: I cheered up my friend.      Wrong: I cheered up her.
(but "I cheered her up" is okay)

I suspect that many of the rules of proper English will fall by the wayside, buried under an avalanche of words, images, and videos that come at us unceasingly; tut-tutting the misplaced modifier or antecedent is not worth the effort.

At one time educated English speakers were fluent in French and Latin, both important now only to a few. And so it will go with the Queen's English.