Grammar Nazi's: How do you feel about them?

newmug

Deus Ex Machina wrote: »

I'm a bit of a grammer and spelling nazi i just cant stand it when I'm reading a thread and there's a load of mistakes. Your not going to be taken serious if you don't have decent grammer. Get it right its not hard!

Ovvious troll is ovvious

Chuck Stone

al28283 wrote: »

Attachment not found.

The face palm is all yours.

al28283

newmug wrote: »

Ovvious troll is ovvious

he can't even spell machine :rolleyes:

Elvis_Presley

take a read of this post from earlier today:
<snip>
I quite like my reply.

Mod
Dont link to threads in other forums.

bnt

The thing about "Grammar Nazism" is that it can be applied to yourself as well as to others. I have a bit of "form" with it, but I can control it, and there's no hypocrisy involved. I'm far more likely to find faults with my own posts than anyone else's - but it's OK, because I can fix them. If Boards allowed people to fix others' posts in place (not "FYP" quotes), then some of us would never be off here...

Irishgoatman

As I've said before, as a rule, I can put up with bad spelling etc as long as the post makes sense.

HOWEVER, I received an email yesterday from Samsung wanting me to down-load a new 'phone app.
The first line of the instructions, telling me how easy it is to do, read "First swich you 'phone on".

I just had to send it back to them suggesting that they read the first line slowly!. Couldn't resist it.

TerrorFirmer

I can be a bit of a grammar Nazi, but within reason. I don't mind the odd misspelled word, lack of apostrophes, stuff like that. Mostly just terrible punctuation, really. People who write entire blocks devoid of any sense of flow at all. Or people who misuse 'you're' and 'your', and so on. But someone saying 'youre', wouldn't bother me in the slightest. More than anything I detest people who actually pick at little details like that.

looksee

If you don't know the difference between accept and except you end up writing sentences that give entirely the opposite meaning to what you intend. 'I will accept someone who....' and 'I will except someone who...'.

The odd time the meaning can be extrapolated from the context, but once they become interchangeable in popular use then confusion ensues. Just imagine the consequences if you are reading a legal document and don't know the difference.

bang_bang_rosie

I'm a member of a number of forums and I find I cant take anyone seriously when they can't spell.

Consistently Irish people refer to losing weight as loosing weight etc etc

Why why why do we think lose is loose?!

Loose means eg baggy clothes. Weight loss is to lose weight NOT loose.

Drives me stuipdly mad.

P.S. Why do very few southern Irish people know the difference between horizontal and vertical???

The King of Moo

bang_bang_rosie wrote: »

I'm a member of a number of forums and I find I cant take anyone seriously when they can't spell.

Consistently Irish people refer to losing weight as loosing weight etc etc

Why why why do we think lose is loose?!

Loose means eg baggy clothes. Weight loss is to lose weight NOT loose.

Drives me stuipdly mad.

P.S. Why do very few southern Irish people know the difference between horizontal and vertical???

All English speakers make such mistakes. If you know what they mean don't worry about it.

We might not spell well, but we're great at irony.

Pherekydes

Et cetera.

Any others you want to know?

hondasam

bang_bang_rosie wrote: »

P.S. Why do very few southern Irish people know the difference between horizontal and vertical???

You mean Irish people?

DEFTLEFTHAND

W.B Yeats was a legendary bad speller.

Davidius

This has nothing to do with being Irish at all. Half the internet spells lose as loose.

Super-Rush

whod of taught their was a thred about this alredy

treds mergd.

dirtyden

I cannot think of any adult I know who does not know the difference between horizontal and vertical. What kind of people do you associate with Rosie?

I have seen the loose/lose thing on occasion but cannot say it causes me any great pain. Some people cannot spell that well, so what.

The King of Moo

I spell "fish" like this: ghoti.

"gh" = "f," as in "enough."

"o" = "i," as in "women."

"ti" = "sh," as in "nation."

English spelling and pronunciation are full of irregularities, it being a mongrel language.

Spelling mistakes, especially "loose/lose" are entirely understandable.

bang_bang_rosie

Ah yeah, I know we are all bad spellers. Certain words have eluded me since primary school . business being one ( thank god for spell check).

It's not spelling in general that irritates me just the lose/loose thing (for now;) )

And lack of knowledge of horizontal/vertical irritates me.

Now I come to think of it though the misuse of , there, their and they're drives me bonkers too!

Perhaps I should just get a life

bang_bang_rosie

The King of Moo wrote: »

I spell "fish" like this: ghoti.

"gh" = "f," as in "enough."

"o" = "i," as in "women."

"ti" = "sh," as in "nation."

English spelling and pronunciation are full of irregularities, it being a mongrel language.

Spelling mistakes, especially "loose/lose" are entirely understandable.

But why?

mariaalice

My spelling is not good. I tend to write in a stream of conscious style so I am sure at times I don't make sense, but mostly the grammar Nazi's do not bother me, as long they don't come across as arrogant p***k's who equate intelligence with the ability to spell. I know bad spelling bothers some people and thats OK.

al28283

mariaalice wrote: »

My spelling is not good. I tend to write in a stream of conscious style so I am sure at times I don't make sense, but mostly the grammar Nazi's do not bother me, as long they don't come across as arrogant p***k's who equate intelligence with the ability to spell. I know bad spelling bothers some people and thats OK.

Must... resist... correcting!

The King of Moo

bang_bang_rosie wrote: »

But why?

Beecoz eye khan.

Obviously I don't really spell it like that. But if one were to look for universal logic within the English language one would never find it, which that example indicates.
Just in terms of spelling, it combines a number of different traditions from different languages.

Some spelling mistakes are bad and people with a primary-school education should know better than to make them, especially when they change or obscure their intended meaning.

But things like "loose/lose" and "their/they're/there" are fairly understandable.
Often people make mistakes with those words not due to lack of knowledge, but simply due to typos.
I often type "your" instead of "you're" and vice versa absent-mindedly (though I'll usually catch the mistake), and I'm a certified grammar, spelling and language junkie.

My advice is not to get upset by mistakes if you know what the writer means to say.
Spelling variations and mistakes are a small price to pay for the English language's remarkable richness.

bang_bang_rosie

In my job I ask a question about horizontal and vertical every day for at least 20 people a day.

It's rare if I have more than 2 people that know the difference. Most likely, it's the "up and down" lines or the "across" lines. I'll not even bother getting into the other responses. This includes teachers, which makes the problem obvious.

P.S. yes I know I'm anal

The King of Moo

bang_bang_rosie wrote: »

In my job I ask a question about horizontal and vertical every day for at least 20 people a day.

It's rare if I have more than 2 people that know the difference. Most likely, it's the "up and down" lines or the "across" lines. I'll not even bother getting into the other responses. This includes teachers, which makes the problem obvious.

P.S. yes I know I'm anal

I think you just work with some stupid people, to be honest. I've never known any adult to not know the difference between the two. Are these people sideways?

bang_bang_rosie

My opinion is based on quite a wide range of people, believe me it's only 1 in 20 know the difference.

bang_bang_rosie

And that's being kind

bodice ripper

People who say "mediums" should be drug out into the street and violated with the severed limbs of people who say "for all intensive purposes".

aaronjumper

I sometimes become one but can generally resist the urge.
There's always a bout of self loathing after it though, so I voted pricks.

The King of Moo

bodice ripper wrote: »

People who say "mediums" should be drug out into the street and violated with the severed limbs of people who say "for all intensive purposes".

It seems a bit rich to complain about those cases, but insist on inventing a new irregular past participle for "to drag," instead of using the regular, standard "dragged."

Bobby Baccala

They're a bit of a bunch of pricks aren't they? Making a post just to correct peoples spelling is just showing to people you have nothing better to be doing with your life than correcting strangers grammar.