Grammar Nazi, or educator?

Jean-F · 27 Jan 2021 at 11:03

I saw this at the closing of a thread on a U.S. forum, I wish that I had the moxie to post it in a U.K. forum!
(Not necessarily this one.)

This thread has gone way off topic. Time to close it.
__________________

IMPORTANT READING:
Terms of Service

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its - possession
it's - contraction of it is
your - possession
you're - contraction of you are
their - possession
they're - contraction of they are
there - referring to a place
loose - opposite of tight
lose - opposite of win
who's - contraction of who is
whose - possession

Tony Edwards · 27 Jan 2021 at 12:21

Hmm full stops between letters in an abbreviation of United Kingdom? How dare you bring Americanisation into this great country of ours.

Jean-F · 27 Jan 2021 at 12:56

Tony Edwards said:
Hmm full stops between letters in an abbreviation of United Kingdom? How dare you bring Americanisation into this great country of ours.

Americanisation? Really?
If I put the caps lock on, and type a U then a K quickly, the periods (oops, full stops), appear automatically, although I can put UK by erasing, (Goddamn, I did it again!), deleting the . .
Strangely though, if I put the caps lock on and type US, that’s how it appears, no . .
If I put UK in future, how do you feel about “the whole nine yards”, and “I could care less”?

Tony Edwards · 27 Jan 2021 at 12:59

Jean-F said:
Americanisation? Really?
If I put the caps lock on, and type a U then a K quickly, the periods (oops, full stops), appear automatically, although I can put UK by erasing, (Goddamn, I did it again!), deleting the . .
Strangely though, if I put the caps lock on and type US, that’s how it appears, no . .
If I put UK in future, how do you feel about “the whole nine yards”, and “I could care less”?

I could care less has to be one of the things that wind me up more than anything especialy trying to explain how it is wrong, but then I get told "I could care less. "******* idiots. The whole nine yards I can live with.

Feek · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:15

If I see a post that’s blatant grammar nazism, I delete it. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation and generally the poster being corrected doesn’t care.

dlockers · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:27

Tony Edwards said:
I could care less has to be one of the things that wind me up more than anything especialy trying to explain how it is wrong, but then I get told "I could care less. "******* idiots. The whole nine yards I can live with.

It's couldn't care less. I could care less implies you have some amount of care remaining.

Edit; reading isn't my strong point

turbot1984 · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:29

Does it really matter? Its (sic) the point that count's (sic)

cheesyboy · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:31

My phone auto-corrects its to it's every time. Irritating.

adolf hamster · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:37

Jean-F said:
“the whole nine yards”

thought that was very much a british term being the length of a .303 maxim belt?

Theophany · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:44

adolf hamster said:
thought that was very much a british term being the length of a .303 maxim belt?

Apparently not, nobody really knows where it came from. Would be a cool etymology for it though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_whole_nine_yards

dirtychinchilla · 27 Jan 2021 at 13:52

cheesyboy said:
My phone auto-corrects its to it's every time. Irritating.

Same. **** off and let me make my own mistakes!

adolf hamster · 27 Jan 2021 at 14:02

Theophany said:
Apparently not, nobody really knows where it came from. Would be a cool etymology for it though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_whole_nine_yards

huh, well that's my new thing learned for the day.

it certainly makes sense in terms of the phrases meaning- if you've dumped the whole belt at someone then you've given it everything you've got.

but evidently it pre-dates it, unless maybe if the original was 6 yards maybe the shift to 9 yards was adapting the phrase later on?

ttaskmaster · 27 Jan 2021 at 14:37

Feek said:
If I see a post that’s blatant grammar nazism, I delete it. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation and generally the poster being corrected doesn’t care.

Blatantly poor grammar detracts from the conversation though, especially for those of us who have taken the time and made the effort to improve our own grammatical standards. We may not be perfect, but we're getting better and would love to help others improve, too... otherwise they and their posts are doomed to remain as much of a joke as a screen door on a battleship.

The corrections are there - If the corrected poster does not care to learn from them, that's their choice, but due to a challenged schooling system and the influence of American television programmes many people are simply unaware of their errors, and most quite happily adopt the correct ways. Posts above clearly demonstrate some interest in things like etymology and the reasons behind when/why it would be 'fewer' and not 'less'.

So yes, Grammar Nazi, but also educator at the same time.

Razor-BladE · 27 Jan 2021 at 14:50

The misuse of bought/brought really annoys me.

potatolord · 27 Jan 2021 at 14:52

ttaskmaster said:
Blatantly poor grammar detracts from the conversation...

Clear and concise writing aids communication.

cheesyboy · 27 Jan 2021 at 14:57

The one that I see that gets me the most, because I can read properly, is the use of resigns when someone means re-signs.

They're basically opposites, and I always read it as it's written, which gives a wrong picture. I've been following pro wrestling for the past 18 months or so (for the first time since I was about 12), and it's extremely common in the discourse when talking about wrestlers' contracts. It's used wrongly more than it's used correctly

Tony Edwards · 27 Jan 2021 at 15:04

ttaskmaster · 27 Jan 2021 at 15:08

potatolord said:
Clear and concise writing aids communication.

The frequency with which people then follow such posts with misunderstanding suggests otherwise...

Diddums · 27 Jan 2021 at 15:09

For me it's quite simple. The words you put on the screen are the only thing people see when you interact with them, so make them count.

I place a lot of value on how people write, if someone confuses "brought" with "bought", confuses "there, their and they're" or all the other usual mistakes, then I automatically think they're uneducated and probably a bit thick. Which is odd because I'm also very uneducated and pretty thick so if people can't even get over that very low bar then what's the point in even trying to have an intelligent discussion with them?

Diddums · 27 Jan 2021 at 15:14

Razor-BladE said:
The misuse of bought/brought really annoys me.

It's my pet peeve. I have a tendency to look behind the words and in most cases you're dealing with people who are in their thirties at least. It does make me wonder how many times they've ignored advice or stuck their fingers in their ears and continued to write like this, knowing full well that they're wrong and are making themselves look dense. How little must you care about how others perceive you to care that little?

Which is why I also don't really care about these people. That's my reasoning anyway.

It's a bit like someone turning up to a party with their trousers on back to front. People tell you it's wrong, you know it's wrong, you know you look stupid, yet you don't fix it. I just can't get my head around it :confused: