For those of you who can't spell or do grammar...

I'm sure and I know that my grammar isn't perfect in English, neither is it in French.

However, I do try and spell correctly, and certainly when speaking and writing formally I do review what I write before sending.

On a forum, I must admit that I do not put as much effort into the fluidity, prose or construction of my sentences. I try not to make basic mistakes, but whilst I do this I don't overly worry about other people's grammar. Conversely, I do think getting the basics right is important. i.e. their/they're/there, it's/its, brought/bought and so on... Those are important - whether or not the structure of a sentence is correctly tensed or whether it's splitting the infinitive is less of an issue for me. As long as I can understand what is being said then it doesn't bother me that much!

However, saying that, I have changed the title of many people's threads here in the past! :o
 
I worked as a proof reader for quite a while. Whilst I might not care about peoples spelling and grammar in general I still cant help automatically picking it apart :(.
 
vonhelmet said:
I think most people don't know and don't care.

It doesn't help that English is an incredibly stupid language, with no real structure or rules, particularly when it comes to spelling.
Click to expand...

I'd prefer to say "English is an incredibly awsome language, with no real structure or rules...". It really is a fantastic language with so much variation to catch out the unwary. I can appreciate that it's extremely difficult to write correctly (less so to speak perhaps) but I wouldn't trade that for anything even though it will occasionally catch me out. In some ways the only pity for me is that it's my native language as deciding on a second language that I could wish to learn is inevitably that much more difficult.
 
franco_22 said:
I'm really getting sick of these threads and they do make me laugh. For those of you who persistently antagonize someone over their spelling or grammar, have you ever thought of this?

1) Maybe, english isn't their first language.
Click to expand...

It's usually readily apparent when someone's first language isn't English, because the grammar and sentence structure is incorrect in fairly easy-to-spot ways.

franco_22 said:
2) Maybe they are dyslexic
Click to expand...

I've said before that I won't have a go at dyslexic people's writing. Besides, the vast majority of people who do get criticised never come out with this as an excuse, so I think you're overstating the issue.

franco_22 said:
3) Maybe, they have a degree in biomedical engineering and while their grammar isn't as good as the kid who studied Shakespeare or philosophy, they are probably a lot brighter then him.
Click to expand...

It's not a question of who's brightest. If we're writing things down, we should be writing them down properly. Of course I'll not criticise a biomedical engineer on his biomedical engineering, as I know nothing about it, but where we have common ground - writing - I will.

Besides, I have no English related qualifications beyond GCSE, and I only got 2 Bs there, so I'm not sure I'm any more qualified in English than your hypothetical engineer.

franco_22 said:
If you really must take 2 minutes of your time simply to point out that Johnny was incapapable of using one apostrophe correctly, then you sir are very pompous and pedantic. In other words: an arse.
Click to expand...

Cheers.
 
semi-pro waster said:
I'd prefer to say "English is an incredibly awsome language, with no real structure or rules...". It really is a fantastic language with so much variation to catch out the unwary. I can appreciate that it's extremely difficult to write correctly (less so to speak perhaps) but I wouldn't trade that for anything even though it will occasionally catch me out. In some ways the only pity for me is that it's my native language as deciding on a second language that I could wish to learn is inevitably that much more difficult.
Click to expand...

See, this is the trouble. The lack of structure and whatnot also makes it one of the most versatile languages. It absorbs everything it comes across. The result is that there are no rules, and it's impossible to teach formally, but the upside is that you can use it in so many different ways.
 
@ von - Shouldn't your sig, have a comma between "again" and "with" ? :p

That'll learn you, with your stupidly long poem brrap.
 
I don't consider my posts too bad, i do make an effort to keep the grammatically correct however some things do slip through undetected. I generally don't care for other peoples posts as long as i can understand it. One thing that really does annoy me as of late however is the number of people on facebook (yeah i know) that use "are" instead of "our" :confused: seriously what the hell!!!
 
Orcish-Horde said:
Regional accents, I have one parent from Glasgow and the other Belfast. When I talk I switch between Scotish and N Irish accents, when I write/type the words how they are writen don't always match how they are said. The English Langage in its writen form doesn't match how people talk out side of the English South. How I talk and write does throw me and some times am lazy. Maybe if the English langage was more standardises it would be easyer.

I can get grammar and spelling right if I take my time and think about it. But on a forum with my kids running a muck its not going to happen. Its realy not that important.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you.
 
skippy2421 said:
I don't consider my posts too bad, i do make an effort to keep the grammatically correct however some things do slip through undetected. I generally don't care for other peoples posts as long as i can understand it.
Click to expand...
I have corrected typos from some of my posts that could be months old. I don't know why. :o
 
Khaaan! said:
English!

I dare you all to go a whole week without using spell checker when posting here, then backtrack and spot the mistakes :p

I'd be writing "teh" all over the shop, even though I'm not a shop.

The forum rules should state that reading http://theoatmeal.com/ is mandatory as well, this would improve things further!
Click to expand...

I'm forever typing teh, ot, & adn.....I couldn't survive with out spell-checker although I do sometimes miss them and feel a complete arse when I read back once I've posted :D
 
The worst one is still "would have" or "could have". Aside from "then" rather than "than" or vice versa. Actually, sod it. They're all bad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom