Grammar Nazi, or educator?

[Jean-F]

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

 

[Jean-F]

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”?

 

[Jean-F]

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?

I don’t agree with everything you post Diddums, but you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head there in my opinion.
Whenever I read, “He should have”, or “I could have”, I want to try and gently point out to the poster his/her mistake, in the hope that they can learn from it, but it’s dollars to doughnuts that it will be construed as advice from a condescending grammar Nazi.

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.

What he so eloquently said.

 

[Jean-F]

How do I tell a FB friend I haven't spoken to in about 10 years that it is "to", not "too"?

I actually find reading his posts hysterical and kinda want to see how long until someone tells him.

Normally he is talking politics, too. For the added embarrassment.

I had a WhatsApp from one of my grandsons today, I had gently derided the football team that he follows.
His reply contained the sentence, “At the end of the season, we’ll see what they’re made off.”
I agonised for maybe 20 minutes, biting my lip until I almost drew blood, but I couldn’t do it, I let it go.
Had it been his father, (my younger son), I’d have been all over him like a cheap suit!

I particularly like this video to explaining it

If I had a nickel for every time that excellent clip has been aimed at me, I could buy the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

[Jean-F]

I particularly like 'No big of a deal' instead of no big deal.

I hadn’t heard that one, preferring to use “it’s no big deal”, or just “no biggie”, right now I have to Google comma splice.

 

[Jean-F]

sounds about right, i'd forgotten spade could be used as a derogatory term until it was brought up.

I doubt most people would even have thought of it like that, until you pointed it out... which probably does more to perpetuate racism than eliminate it.

Probably speaks volumes about where I was raised, and the people that I mixed with, but the non P.C. use of the word leapt straight into my mind when I read it, I thought wow, stand by for fireworks!

 

[Jean-F]

see for me the term has always just been used as the name for a manual earth moving tool and nothing else.

Then you are lucky adolf, or more likely quite young, anyone of my age, especially a Londoner, will be familiar with the other meaning of the word, fortunately it’s becoming passé now.

 

[Jean-F]

Guess that depends on your definition of young.

But maybe its less common outside of london, or as you say i've just been lucky.

In an effort to define “young” as it was to me, I was 30 as 1970 dawned, and all through the seventies spade was the buzzword for you know which ethnic group.
The N word was definitely around, but compared to the S word, it was still used, but a lot less often.
New words were invented by those who thought that they were clever and avant garde, but those words died a natural death.
One that lingered for a while was schwartz or schwartze (German for black), I think that those who used that word felt that it was American slang, and by using it, they (in their minds), were elevated to pseudo Americans, but they may have been unaware that it was also American/Yiddish slang for penis as well as black.

 

[Jean-F]

oh yeah for sure i ain't that old.

when you said very young i thought you meant teenager

I actually typed quite young, and I meant compared to me, which apparently everyone is

 

[Jean-F]

I don't see the need in pointing out errors unless the mistake causes confusion...if someone uses its instead of it's or bought instead of brought etc it's still obvious what they mean

While it’s very laudable to not point out someone’s mistakes in public, if I read a post that has grammatical mistakes, e.g. “should have”, “would have”, instead of “should have”, “would have”, or brought for bought, I say nothing and move along, but I reserve the right to think of the poster as an extremely ignorant berk.

You fell into the trap... and to prove it was one, I spelled it correctly in the previous sentence

I’m glad that you posted that, my first thought was “Is this a trap?”, but I had a nagging thought that perhaps you had an ambivalent attitude toward spelling!

 

[Jean-F]

No.
Grammar Nazis just want people to use the correct grammar, there's nothing more to it than that.

I’d agree with that all day long Feek, but unfortunately there are lots of people who think that an apostrophe is needed if you duplicate a noun, e.g. car’s not cars, Nazi’s not Nazis, mirror’s not mirrors.
Anyone gently pointing out their mistake, in the hope that they’ll learn from it, immediately becomes an SS stormtrooper in their eyes.

 

[Jean-F]

My wife will say "I'm not having a go of you", instead of "I'm not having a go at you".

The irony is, she is most definitely having a go at me when she says it and correcting her just fuels the fire

Welcome to my world, except with my wife, it’s “I’m fed up OF this lockdown.”
I’ve given up gently pointing out that perhaps she should be saying, “I’m fed up WITH this lockdown.”
That way lies threats of, “D’you want to eat your dinner through a straw?”

 

[Jean-F]

There is a respectful way of telling someone, the times i have been corrected were almost always put in a very rude way

Maybe they were trying to be helpful, but you interpreted their help as rude or disrespectful.
Thinks; Jeez, I hope that I never tried to gently help dave28 ‍