“Alot”

I just don’t care.

i also think pulling up of SAG online is a good demonstration of low intellect and emotional intelligence.

I’ve name changed as I don’t want the specific post I’m talking about to be a drama.
but I was corrected by someone who is also in this thread on another thread a couple of weeks ago, very rudely, it wasn’t done out of kindness, I genuinely hope it made them feel better as it just made me feel shit, which I’m sure they knew, I’ve been through education, tutoring, stressing about it, a rude comment on a forum is unlikely to be the aha moment for most people who have struggled with this continuously.

I really struggle with spag, grammary luckily covers a lot of it for me, but I don’t use it on my phone and I don’t fret about it on a forum that’s just for advice and fun and anyone can scroll past my post and ignore it.

many of the things listed on this thread, where, were, too, to, could of could have, a lot of things that sound similar are things I struggle with, I’m not thick or stupid or a pleb and I like to read these days, there will be all sorts of things people struggle to learn at school or an adult, but unluckily mine is always on full display as it’s spag and we live in a writing world.
There are a whole bunch of reasons why people will struggle with this stuff, people dont want to know though, these threads always go the same way, your thick and your stupid and if you point out the reasons for struggling it’s labelled a poor excuse.

What I don't understand is,doesn't anyone break down their speech? For example, if they're about to say "I should of done it" don't they then go to "I of done it" no wait, that doesn't make sense, so it must be "I have done it" and therefore "I should have/should've done it"

I've also seen afew. Then there's should/would/could of. And less instead of fewer. It's physically and mentally painful. Especially in formal emails from bosses.

It's all over Mumsnet. The people who do it can never have read a book, newspaper or anything published anywhere, which is almost impossible to believe.

Yesterday I read a post where the poster wrote " I could of done x, had I of known about it".

I once corrected someone about it as an aside to a comment I was making. I was crucified by so many other posters for pointing it out, they were really scraping the barrel for imaginary excuses as to why it was perfectly fine for the poster to write it like that and it was appalling of me to even suggest otherwise. That's probably why it has proliferated on here because people are afraid of the backlash if you dare to do so.

But if no one tells you you're wrong, how will you ever learn the correct way?

Yes we definitely all form judgements. That's human nature.

Oh, I don't disagree that there's a time and a place to voice it. There's no need to be unkind to someone who's upset about something. It is true though that judgements are formed regardless.

It's fine to form conclusions but they don't all have to be voiced. Calling people stupid or lazy purely because they can't spell a word that you can isn't exactly something that needs to be voiced.

I might have an opinion about someone's outfit walking down the street but I'm not going to voice it if it'll hurt them so why do it online. It's not 'victimless' because someone is voicing an opinion online if it's something that's unkind.

Sure, but it stands up to no scrutiny. I could have walked up that hill. I have walked up that hill. I of walked up that hill? It make no sense

I can understand why people say it though. Could’ve, would’ve and should’ve are common contractions used in everyday speech.

Brought/bought and reign/rein/rain swaps can be pretty annoying too. Oh, and bear/bare. Bare with me?

Pedantry is looked down upon here but we are all constantly forming judgements of each other. How we dress, how we speak, the company we keep. It's perfectly normal. If someone's posts are littered with terrible grammar it's inevitable others will form conclusions about education level.

This is probably the most common SPAG offence on Mumsnet: Should of and Could of.

I'm normally fairly indulgent of spelling mistakes on here as I realise a lot of people had a poor education but I really can't persuade myself there's any excuse for this. Even a phone will autocorrect this.

I agree. Could of, would of, should of are the absolute worst of the worst. Heaven forbid anyone comment on it though.

Uneducated plebs use the word and their job/lifestyle doesn't require them to learn the correct grammar.

Yes I linked to it but it’s not been approved yet

Counsellor vs Councillor too. Not egregious, I know, but I have to re-read most of the time.
CAHMS is another one - makes me think of 'just cahm down', so obviously that's my problem!

Let's remember that schools have a 'one size fits all' approach to education. Yet we all learn in different ways. I'm sure many of us can recall being told how to do something but not getting the hang of it until someone else explains it in a different way. A way that suits the way we personally learn.

I absolutely have not written off any children. There is a huge difference between knowing that there are 1001 reasons why children are blocked from learning than those posters dismissing people as stupid and lazy for not being able to spell certain words.

Slightly off topic, but I have seen an item of furniture described as "Chester Draws" both on here and on FB.

It took my brain a couple of seconds to compute the first time I saw it.

You talk about social mobility but the way you write shows that you've already written off the futures of the very children you're talking about. You're saying that because of difficult lives they're never going to learn anything at school because they're spending their whole school day worrying about their home life.

That is absolute rubbish.

Schools and teachers have done, can and do make a tremendous difference to the lives and futures of children with difficult backgrounds. They show them that life can be different, books can open up new worlds, you don't have to be condemned to the same life as your parents, that education can give you choices to make a better life for yourself, that hard work at school gives you long term rewards. Good schools and teachers can open doors for children.

The spellings we are talking about here are not difficult, it's not hard to write "a lot" instead of "alot". That's why it can be taught and learned at primary school.

May I be so bold as to bring up the everyday horror on MN of "brake" vs "break" in every motoring thread ever? Can't blame that one on autocorrect.

It's not a bleeding heart response. It's the reality for tens of thousands of kids. I'm sorry your granddaughter had a tough start. Just because she learnt to spell despite her challenges can you seriously not see how other kids have so much going on that spelling just doesn't even factor in their life. Your granddaughter had you and probably had someone (you?) in her life that cared about education. Huge numbers of children don't have that. Try to see that and be a bit more open minded.

No, I specifically asked you "Says who?" and it was you who made the appeal to the "authority" of the dictionary. So, even by your own standards you are wrong about the pronunciation of sloth. I note you haven't corrected your error.

It's pretty obvious that standardisation for written English will endure longer than for spoken English. "Alot" is wrong for now, but might not be in 50 years' time.

There’s also the use of too instead of to. Mostly where it occurs at the end of a sentence such as “if I didn’t have too” or “but he didn’t mean too”. Weird. And wrong.