Do You Say ‘Prom’ or ‘The Prom?’
You're probably seeing a lot of prom pictures in your Facebook news feed over the past week or so. Do you find it weird that high school kids will refer to the coming-of-age event as simply "prom," as opposed to "the prom?"
If you went to your prom in the 90's, chances are you might have said something like "Hey, what are you guys doing after the prom?" Now, the same question would be asked like this: "Hey, what are you guys doing after prom?" or "Will you go to prom with me?"
Abby and Gazelle were on the "prom" bandwagon...they refer to it without the word "the." With some analysis, we think the transformation took place shortly after the year 2000. So effectively, you went to "the prom" before the year 2000, but after the millennium you simply went to "prom."
We had an English major call the show with an explanation of the "prom" vs. 'the prom' madness. She told us that the correct use of the term is "the prom," because it is an improper noun, but she thinks the younger generation might be getting confused because they are thinking of the word "prom" as a verb...as in "promenade." You can hear her explanation below.