It's "the worsT", not "the worse"

Story instead of storey when referring to building levels. Particularly gruesome when you're looking at houses and the estate agent uses it. I have to restrain myself from emailing.

I saw 'to all intense and purposes' here recently.
I used to like the idea of a 'living language' but now.. sigh.

I’ve seen ‘inferring’ when they mean ‘implying’ a lot recently. Just plain wrong (and annoying)

The use of the word 'invite' incorrectly has becoming ubiquitous. Invite is a verb. A 'doing' word. It's the word for what you are doing when you ask someone to an event. 'I would like to invite you to my party'.
The potential guest hasn't been given an invite. He or she has been given an invitation. That is the noun.

I think I have PTSD from covid and 'aloud'.

We're not aloud to stand close to people
We're not aloud do visit
That's not aloud
People are not aloud

Its ALLOWED ffs!

It still happens now every now and then and give a silent scream.

What a ludicrously unrealistic analogy.

Have you heard of AI? Nobody has problems producing clear, largely correct copy these days if they really need to,

Though if they’re worried about finding a job, they should also probably worry more about AI gate-keeping them than grammar pedants.

However there is also a big difference between “telling people these things don’t matter” and recognising that these things don’t matter to a lot of people.

😂

Prolly is the worst one I’ve seen

No one has objected to the word "paediatrician".

Do you really not understand the objection to the word "niggardly"? (To be clear, I don't object to the word but I understand why people would avoid using it and it's not a word I would miss if it was no longer used.)

There are loads of things that people struggle with. Spelling is definitely not the worst. I never understand why spelling is pointed out so often? Don't people realise that this is far worse than being a bad speller. They might as well write 'I can spell and I have noticed your spelling errors. I think that makes me clever. Can I have a gold star?'

Someone posts about their husband having a threesome with their best friend and their sister and someone petty will come along and point out the spelling mistake or pretend they don't understand the meaning because they used there, instead of their.

Personally I have a real issue with anyone telling children or young people that these things don’t matter any more - only finicking old pedants give a toss.
Many people certainly DO care, and quite apart from anything else, being unable to write clear, largely correct, basic English may well make it harder for them to find jobs.

How sad that those of use who try and want to use our rich language well are termed "snobs". Oh let's all go and live in the gutter, and don't any of us bother looking at the stars.

True!

And it's never a good look.

I was once at an event - quite a posh one - where the menu had 'profiter rolls' as a dessert. I mean - if you're a professional caterer, surely you know how to spell the name of popular dishes, and if you don't....you check.

Getting another person to check always helps too! When I'm writing anything for public consumption I always ask someone to read it through. You can spot other people's mistakes much more easily.

Nowhere have I suggested denying or patronizing people from deprived backgrounds, nor have I suggested devaluing or impoverishing the language, so you are doing a lot of shadow-boxing here.

Blair is not the only politician (or anyone else in the public eye) who’s tried to sound un-posh by dropping Ts, and sometimes also Gs at the end of -ing words, in the hope of endearing himself to the plebs.

That’s another from across the pond. It doesn’t even make sense!

Peddle instead of pedal is a new one I’ve seen recently.

I’m not sure what that statistic implies. Some people may not be able to master a foreign language but most people can learn to use their mother-tongue effectively if emphasis is placed on this in the education system.

We may have a greater or lesser facility with English but devaluing and impoverishing the language itself is not the answer. Better initiatives to raise standards of literacy is the e way to go. I feel really strongly that to patronise and deny people from educationally-deprived backgrounds robs them of power and dignity.

Yes, that’s true. Usually learned behaviour in childhood or not taught, luckily mumsnet is here to teach the illiterate folk who spell words the way they speak.
I have seen some shocking misspellings on SM but misplacing similar words is different.
I myself learned a lot through mumsnet when it was a kinder crowd. My SPAG will never be perfect, however these threads are shitty as you know well the reasons for this is lack of education, not that they were born thick.
Before anyone starts with everyone is entitled and an education, in a disadvantaged area’s there isn’t much learning in schools. Surviving.

Some people are just thick OP.

Why, in the name of God, would anyone object to “paediatrician”? Or niggardly, for that matter?

This is just pandering to ignorance. Why should a rich, subtle and expressive language be impoverished just to suit its least skilled users?

Have we lost our minds?