Grammarians, pay a bit of nevermind

DEAR READERS: I started writing the "Ask Amy" column 10 years ago. I am marking this decade of advice by stepping away briefly for the first time in 10 years. I return next week. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy some of my favorite "Ask Amy" questions and answers.

DEAR AMY: Our family enjoys your column. You have a particularly dedicated fan in our 12-year-old son, who reads your column every morning. As a family with roots in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, we especially liked the end of your answer to "Grammatically Correct Lady" in a recent column. However, to our eye (ear?) your education and sense of grammatical propriety were still peeking through.

We would normally say, "It don't make me no nevermind." To say, "It don't make no nevermind to me," as you did -- with a bona fide prepositional phrase included -- is just a bit of citified formality!Fans in Chicago

DEAR FANS: I've heard from several readers who wondered if I grew up in a certain corner of Virginia or along the North Carolina border. I didn't, but somehow that phrase made it north into my native neck of the woods.

Your correction is correct.

Insertion of a prepositional phrase must have been due to my now built-in fear of vigilant copy editors, who save me daily.

By the way, the translation to this ungrammatical phrase is, "It doesn't matter to me," which, though understandable, lacks music, don't you think?

My sincere thanks to your 12-year-old son and to breakfast-table readers everywhere.

You can contact Amy Dickinson via email: askamy@

tribune.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or "like" her on Facebook. Amy Dickinson's memoir, "The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter and the Town that Raised Them" (Hyperion), is available in bookstores.