Appalling grammar influx

I doubt people will suddenly start spelling words incorrectly (indignant, for example) or inserting random letters into sentences (I, for example) just because some random on the internet did.

With some posters, I assume, it’s pure habit. I’m a teacher of over 20 years and I often read on local forums posts containing zero punctuation etc. from ex-students who I KNOW can write perfectly in a classroom situation.

Of course nobody is obliged to respond to any post but some people might want to, particularly if the OP seems to be desperate.

I am with you but I actually think that it's one or two posters. These posts are quite often controversial as well... So...

I read a fairly short thread yesterday and it included the "words":

Incase
Infront
Aswell
Loosing
Busses

Plus probably several others I've forgotten.

When my friend was an English teacher in a school in Somerset she had a TA working with her class who always used to say "I weren't/we wasn't" etc as well as things like "where's 'e to?" (meaning "where is he?")

Friend (also born and brought up in Somerset) asked her (in private) not to, because the students needed to hear the correct usage, in English lessons I even if nowhere else. The TA became very indignent saying that she used Somerset dialect and shouldn't be expected to change the way she spoke.

Personally I don't care how people write on Mumsnet, though sometimes I have to read things a couple of times to work out what they mean.

What worries me is that I think people see poor written grammar/punctuation etc on social media, assume it is correct, and copy it. When I was young there was a lot of poorly spoken English, but anything written was pretty much guaranteed to be correct (with the exception of apostrophes in shops)!

I feel that tone looks snarky like when people say ' what did she say when you confronted her' knowing full well the OP didn't. It's just having a pop in a passive aggressive way.

'This is East Anglian dialect. Away with your judgey twaddle'

Not just in East Anglia. People talk that way where I live too. But only some people. I always corrected my children.

You need to breathe deeply and relax, and I say this as someone who corrects spelling and grammar for a living.

Most of us are typing on our phones, with kids at our elbows, the laundry beeping and 101 pressing things to do. Some people are in such stressful situations (abusive relationships, for instance) that they can hardly type.

It's true the incoherent posts are frustrating... but they must be doubly so for the OP, as she looks at what she's written and realises no one understands what she meant.

You can do that tactfully - rather than 'I don't know what you're asking' say: "What do you mean when you say 'blah blah de blah blah blah'?

Then you've educated yourself not to do it.
Good.

Seriously?

This very sensible verb system omits the –s which Standard English has in these forms—it is redundant, after all, communicating no meaning of any kind. One explanation for this streamlined system is that it came about as a result of the ‘invasion’ of Norwich and Colchester in the sixteenth century by the ‘The Strangers’, thousands of Protestant refugees fleeing from religious persecution by the Spanish in the Low Countries. By 1600 these Dutch and French-speaking refugees formed an astonishingly high proportion—about 35%—of the population of Norwich. And of course third-person –s is well known to cause difficulties for foreign learners of English.

Norfolk is also the only place where I've heard "drivved" used as simple past of "to drive".

I've just read a short thread that the OP has bumped as there is little response, and I can't work out from the list what she is asking. It seems to be just a statement. I was going to ask, Sorry you have few responses, but I don't know what you are asking, but it seemed snarky so I didn't.

I appreciate we don't all have the same level of education and I can usually interpret but I don't have the bandwidth to sit and try to unjumble every post.

The ones I've noticed are where the grammar / sentence structure is so bad, that it's difficult to understand what the OP means.

Yay! The weekly smug grammar bashing thread. I've been waiting for it.

If, OP, approximately 25 years into social media forums and the usage of standard abbreviations within said forums, you are having difficulty understanding them, might I suggest you may have comprehension issues? Have you ever tried reading more?

There is also, of course, the fact that this is a parenting forum, not an English language test. There ARE posts with poor grammar. There always have been. I'm an English teacher in a school, I'm not on Mumsnet to belittle people who may not have had the education I have.

It might also be worth asking yourself the question "the person using grammar incorrectly- why are they doing that?" Choose from one of the following:
a) they're thick
b) they haven't had the English language education that others have had
c) they have cognitive learning issues
d) they're not sitting an English grammar test right now, so what does it truly matter?

After you've answered that one, ask yourself this one.

When the person/people you've started a nasty, belittling, smug thread about see your nasty, belittling, smug thread, do they feel:

a) thankful that such a clever, superior being has pointed out their mistakes
b) humiliated
c) determined to do better next time or face detention
d) that you're a nasty, smug sufferer of both Muphry and Duning-Kruger.

I used to hate the DC, DD, DDog abbreviations but I am fine with it now. Took about 10 years though.

I also struggle to type with my fingers so I don't mind the odd coz.

The ones that I've noticed recently are about well-known individuals in the news that have a spelling mistake in the thread title, usually relating to the famous individual's name. The posts express purported concerns for the well-being of the individual in the news.

I think they come from PR crisis management teams and the spelling mistakes are there to make them seem less obviously professional and more 'normal'. Except on MN they don't seem normal, but rather a bit ignorant.

Hence 'Megan' and endless variations on 'Scoffield' and 'Willibiby'. And the faux innocent declarations of, 'sorry don't no how to spell lol!' from the OPs who are presumably typing into a device that has, you know, google.

It drives me mad.
However.

Lack of a great education/ books/reading/ support from parents has left swathes of the population unable to communicate outside of text speak. However grating it may be, I want them to be able to find support and information on MN rather than feel that it's some kind of middle class club that they are being excluded from.

Chatbots have perfect grammar.

I close those ones.
I'm not here to read a wall of illegible twaddle.