Dear Almaz, the golden era of English grammar started some time after the invention of the book-press, in the late 15th century. For the next four centuries, starting in 1586 by a guy called William Bullokar, they tried to prove English was like Latin: bound by rules. The fact that people at either side of the Thames couldn �t communicate with each other, let alone with those from all other parts of the country, was clearly forgotten. Many linguists indeed condemned parts of the spoken language because t was just not the standard, too dialectal or against their linguistic prejudices. English became systematized in the late 19th century by continental linguists. The last great work on the English grammar, in the early 20th century, was done by ......... Danish and Dutch linguists. As such we can blame others rather than the English themselves for all the exceptions to every single rule. I just kept it a bit shorter in my previous reply :-(