Grammar Nazi, or educator?

[Tony Edwards]

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

Kriss Kross would like a word outside.

 

[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.

 

[The_Arbiter]

Unless someone pm's me a correction i consider it trolling, unless of course there's an obvious effort to not come across as so.

Posting on a phone is a pain in comparison to desktop, so i regularly make mistakes, or don't bother to correct them. No spell check/ auto correct as i'm just not that interested in those.

If the internet wasn't such a passive aggressive place i'd make the effort to english better.

 

[hughtrimble]

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

It's the AI just learning from you

 

[Feek]

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.

Do it gently with your reasoning and explaining why you've done it is fine.

It's when someone just posts a single word correction that they're going to get pulled up as a condescending grammar Nazi.

I also think @Diddums is bang on with his his opinions of posters who make mistakes and just don't care about it. One of things that frustrates me most isn't necessarily grammar but it's apostrophes. I see far too many posts with random apostrophes thrown in and each time I spot one, I have a metaphorical shudder. Rogue apostrophes just leap off the page and look so out of place.

I didn't go beyond comprehensive school so in the scale of things, I'm relatively uneducated but I care about how I come across and to me, good spelling and grammar are important. If someone can't be bothered to at least write legibly, I wonder how they care about themselves generally.

 

[R.P.L]

I stopped bothering to correct people a while back. Most of them either don't care (if they did then they wouldn't be so **** at writing) or get really aggro about being corrected (probably in conjunction with not caring, otherwise they would welcome the correction).
Besides, I don't think it's right in 2021 to correct people. We should all be aiming to create as inclusive an environment as possible. In the same way that fat people should be made to feel completely comfortable with their terrible personal standards of health and fitness, so people who can't be arsed to learn how to write properly should be celebrated, not vilified.

EDIT: I do still occasionally correct my mum if she makes the same mistake repeatedly, to which she usually blames it on a typo

 

[adolf hamster]

i suppose it might be worth offering a balanced perspective that given a language is a tool to convey information then as long as the information that's recieved and understood by the reader/listener then does it really matter if it's the "correct" way?

for example i don't capitalise my "i"'s and i spelt recieved wrong, but did that really make it impossible to understand my point?

 

[Feek]

for example i don't capitalise my "i"'s and i spelt recieved wrong, but did that really make it impossible to understand my point?

If you're aware of it, why don't you do it properly?

 

[adolf hamster]

If you're aware of it, why don't you do it properly?

because retraining muscle memory to fix a problem that doesn't really matter feels like wasted resources, which was my original point.

i'm chatting to random strangers on an internet forum not writing a CV

 

[Feek]

i'm chatting to random strangers on an internet forum not writing a CV

Then when you are writing a CV or filling in a form to apply for a promotion, muscle memory kicks in and you end up discarded because there are 27 applicants and they need to get rid of some of them quickly and concentrate on the ones who come across professionally.

 

[adolf hamster]

Then when you are writing a CV or filling in a form to apply for a promotion, muscle memory kicks in and you end up discarded because there are 27 applicants and they need to get rid of some of them quickly and concentrate on the ones who come across professionally.

and this is why you proof read documents that need to have that higher standard to them.

it's no different than how you change your speech to account for the audience, so you don't talk to your manager the same way you talk to the lads down the pub.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Posting on a phone is a pain in comparison to desktop, so i regularly make mistakes, or don't bother to correct them.

So don't use a phone. Wait until you get to your good keyboard and do it properly.
I deliberately disable auto functions, as it forces me to focus on getting things right myself.

Do it gently with your reasoning and explaining why you've done it is fine.
It's when someone just posts a single word correction that they're going to get pulled up as a condescending grammar Nazi.

Or that it's just done in passing and they don't want to make a big deal out of it. Writing an explanation turns it into a lecture for the recipient. TLR and more aggro in response.

i suppose it might be worth offering a balanced perspective that given a language is a tool to convey information then as long as the information that's recieved and understood by the reader/listener then does it really matter if it's the "correct" way?

You're absolutely right, it's a completely mute point....

for example i don't capitalise my "i"'s and i spelt recieved wrong, but did that really make it impossible to understand my point?

Everyone makes typos, and sometimes we miss them even when checking our posts. Most of my edits are just correcting things I've subsequently noticed.

i'm chatting to random strangers on an internet forum not writing a CV

You have so low an opinion of us that you would not afford us the common courtesy of at least trying to get your grammar to a decent standard?

 

[potatolord]

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

Never underestimate the ingenuity of fools.

 

[adolf hamster]

You have so low an opinion of us that you would not afford us the common courtesy of at least trying to get your grammar to a decent standard?

Wud it b betta 4 me 2 talk lik i rly cudnt care less ,??

Man that took some effort to type that badly.....

To seriously answer your question no i dont think its worth the effort.

 

[Russinating]

As well as grammar my **** ability seems to be to spot things at an angle. I thought a dashed line in a presentation was slanted because of an optical illusion; turns out it was off by 0.4 degrees and nobody else noticed.

On topic, my biggest bug bear? Comma splices. So over/incorrectly used.

 

[potatolord]

Do it gently with your reasoning and explaining why you've done it is fine.

It's when someone just posts a single word correction that they're going to get pulled up as a condescending grammar Nazi.

There was a poster on a forum I used to frequent who was called "It's 'its' ". All he ever posted was single word corrections in response to others' posts, either "its" or "it's".

I always found him very funny.

 

[Rroff]

Thing is if someone's spelling or grammar isn't up to a good standard then either they don't care or there is a lot more missing in their understanding of the use of language and slapping them with a quick explanation, let alone the more abrasive approaches by some, isn't going to be helpful even if they do want to try and increase their standard.

Personally mine has suffered from some trial programs the Conservatives decided to mess about with in the 80s when the national curriculum was brought in and I'm missing around 2-3 years of education on the fundamentals and had to try and pick it up best I could from seeing what other people did (and I don't have much motivation to learn the basics from scratch).

 

[Feek]

On topic, my biggest bug bear? Comma splices. So over/incorrectly used.

I’m probably guilty of this.

 

[Deleted User 298457]

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.

 

[D4N]

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.

I particularly like this video to explaining it