AIBU: Re the grammar police on this board

[RedRoosterLondon]

AIBU to think that the grammar police on here sanctimonious cunts?

[RedRoosterLondon]

Oh wow they are about to get excited because I missed a word out. trembles

[AnnieOnAMapleLeaf]

Meh. Read what interests you and ignore what doesn't.

Poor grammar irritates me but I bite my tongue and ignore it. If it is really poor grammar, I tend to just hide the thread as I know I wouldn't be able to bite my tongue that hard.

[AnnieOnAMapleLeaf]

I didn't mean that first sentence to sound nearly as sarky as it does. Sorry.

[Mmmmcake123]

I poste sumfink 1nce n n the wuz a propr bruhaha
Leave them to it methinks
I always think it's a little unnecessary when people do a second post with a * indicating their error. Occasionally it's valuable but often the error is clearly a typo and doesn't need an explanation

[Mmmmcake123]

*explanation.

[Smidge001]

Don't see the problem myself. If I get something wrong I'm quite happy to have it explained to me what was wrong. Probably why my teachers liked me Surely it says more about you (one? / a person?) if you (one?) can't take criticism.

I realise there are plenty of ways to go about it of course, and rudeness is unnecessary, but generally I find the corrections are meant in a positive way.

Agree if they're just rude and assume that lack of grammar knowledge = dipshit, then that's downright nasty, but I haven't actually seen that attitude, and I'd certainly rather be shown where I went wrong so I can try to do better next time.

don't care if that makes me square!!

[GarlicBake]

I'm a pedant. Quite a relaxed one, but textspeak makes me go on red alert. I can't help it, though I do my best to hide it.

Mumsnet's teeming with more erudite and infinitely more pedantic pedants than me.

• than I.
  
  

[LucyBabs]

I received this message from my sil "ho u hun? Al gud with me.. N e news? Ho the kids? U of out the w en"
I just can't do text speak, there's no place for it. I can understand lack of punctuation, misspelling of words.. but blatant couldn't give a fuck how I am typing.. No!

[YouthHostellingWithChrisEubank]

"Don't see the problem myself. If I get something wrong I'm quite happy to have it explained to me what was wrong."

Well, in principle I agree, but what often happens is everyone will pile onto the OP and make comments about grammar or spelling. That's just nasty.

I do like that MN is free of textspeak though, so I suppose there's a line somewhere in the middle ground between grammar Nazi and Lucybabs' SIL.

[madwomanbackintheattic]

I luffs the grammer police, I does. It used to be the only way you could tell when there was a nethuns invasion, but these days you can't move for 'should of'.

[BillSykesDog]

YANBU. If you can understand it, it's okay. Some people have dyslexia, some have problems with literacy, some aren't very confident writing or were failed by the education system but do try. The last thing they need is some prissy sanctimonious little madam who gets her kicks out of belittling others pointing it out.

It's so tedious as well, it adds nothing to the conversation, details the thread and is interesting to nobody except the smug arse who posted it.

They seem to miss the fact that most people would prefer to read an interesting thoughtful post which mixed up a comma and a semi colon, than one in perfect grammar which is some dreary lecture on the placement of apostrophes.

[toomuchtooold]

I find grammar interesting but mumsnet grammar conversations put me on a never ending downward spiral of hatred for myself and my fellow man. It starts when someone jumps on a grammar thread to complain about a perfectly inoffensive and widely used regional variation of grammar like "I was sat" in the north or "I've went" in Glasgow, and in my head I characterise them as some middle middle class home counties Hyacinth Bucket type in the making. And then I am ashamed of my reaction - aren't I just being a snob as well, albeit inverted (I grew up poor) or intellectual (I speak a second language) ? And that is quite a heavy level of introspection to be getting into when the original thread was just someone pointing out the difference between there and their.

Also, sometimes I'm staggered by how insensitive people can be - someone posts e.g. "I could of said goodbye to my dying father if it wasn't for the hospital parking policy" and some utter arse comes on and corrects the grammar.

[RaskolnikovsGarret]

I think good grammar is very important, and correct poor grammar constantly at work in letters, as I think it's unprofessional otherwise. Wouldn't dream of correcting it in a thread though, as it's completely unnecessary. It's a different medium, more relaxed, and I'm sure I make a lot of mistakes here too.

[Kitkatmonster]

Bad grammar winds me up. Generally I ignore and if it's unreadable then I don't bother trying. I can't stand certain sites because I honestly can't understand half of what's being posted nethuns. I don't find it anywhere near that bad on here to be honest.

[LynetteScavo]

When I post from my phone I must appear barely literate, but no ones ever pulled me up on it.

I did get a kindly lesson in the difference between stationary and stationed once though.

I think the grammar police only tend to enforce the law when a poster needs bringing down a peg or two.

[EdithWeston]

They're not bothered about grammar.

They're putting people down by using extraneous aspects of their posts. In football it's called 'playing the man not the ball'.

If people want to sneer, they'll find something to sneer about.

[Lucymatilde]

Yes I think good grammar is important. I'm helping DSD with "personal statement" and I cringe and squirm at the appalling grammar and gratuitous slinging in of important sounding words which just don't fit. There's no need to be arsey in correcting anyone though and more often than not there's no need to correct at all. Equally I do wonder whether those who aggressively defend their right to write crap (and I'm not referring to this thread) don't know or don't care - or is it both?

[Ledkr]

I know exactly how to spell and punctuate and although will do my best to make posts legible, will certainly not be fretting about it just to post on mumsnet.
I'm often posting on a phone whilst holding a wriggling child or doing something else or am in a rush so mistakes will be made or auto correct will do its job
If u can't bear to look at a post then don't is what I think.
It's extremely bad manners to correct someone especially in the haughty manner it's normally done!
I wonder if people do that in real life, I doubt it.

[CallieTorres]

I'm not so bothered with small errors, but I CANNOT bear the really long ones with no paragraph breaks.

How on earth are you meant to read them??

[Ledkr]

Yes it is hard but I've seen quite emotive posts from people obviously distressed and then some twat will say "you need paragraphs"
I find that almost bullying behaviour.

[GruntledOne]

Not again. Frankly, what I find a whole lot more tedious than grammar police is the people who get all sanctimonious about them.

[CallieTorres]

... and the ones that have a paragraph break for each line

[TiggyD]

It's the people who post and run that stand I cannot.