I'll take your Chester draws and I'll raise you a...

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Wallah! It's the first time I've seen voilà written this way. But when I think about it, it seems like a really obvious thing to do so I wonder how common it is.
Is it a "thing" that I've just missed before now?

@LittleDidSheKnow, well, I never knew that.

@Amdone123 Shakespeare 🙂

I went to a Christening service where they had printed sheets with the words of the hymns. The first one was 'Gentile Jesus, meek and mild..'

Local Facebook group and a takeaway was looking for a cashier, 3-4 knights.

The comments were hilarious 😂 do you provide the horse? Etc etc.

On a floor plan for a house on Right Move 'walking wardrobe'

Very polite oranges 😂

All joking aside, and taking into account dyslexia, etc., I am wondering WHY the standard of spelling and grammar has deteriorated so much over the last few years. Is it that it was rife before, but people didn't 'mix' so much on line, so you didn't come across so many examples? Either way, I think the time has come to ramp up the teaching of correct spelling and grammar in schools.

One of the things that used to make me really cross - and I think is partly to blame for this - is that spelling mistakes were never corrected in work that wasn't for English. The view was that it was about explaining/discussing chemistry or history or geography, and therefore it was more important just for them to write, and not be corrected.

I never understood that and still don't. But in many ways, you see the same thing here - those arguing against the SPaG police often justify their poor spelling/grammar on the basis that 'it's just a forum'. It genuinely doesn't matter to a lot of people.

(I'm talking about when my DC were at school, obviously!)

@BIWI

One of the things that used to make me really cross - and I think is partly to blame for this - is that spelling mistakes were never corrected in work that wasn't for English. The view was that it was about explaining/discussing chemistry or history or geography, and therefore it was more important just for them to write, and not be corrected.

I never understood that and still don't. But in many ways, you see the same thing here - those arguing against the SPaG police often justify their poor spelling/grammar on the basis that 'it's just a forum'. It genuinely doesn't matter to a lot of people.

They do an enormous amount of spelling and grammar in primary school now, much of it unnecessary, in my opinion. My daughter and I are both teachers and I went to an old fashioned grammar school in the 60s but we had to look up 'fronted adverbials' , when that came in. Perhaps the first cohort of children who had to do this, now approaching adulthood will be excellent spellers with perfect grammar. Alternatively, perhaps the government should rethink their priorities - and it is the government not individual schools or teachers that have to do this.

I have also seen terrible mistakes in my grandchildren's school newsletters so I sometimes despair. A child in my youngest grandson's class was apparently told to wear a sweatshirt inside out because the logo said Fat Willy's Surf Shack and she said it was rude. I explained to dgs that if it was about fat penises it would say Fat Willies, the apostrophe in Willy's denotes that the Surf Shack belongs to Willy (short for William). If the same thing happens to dgs, dd will explain the finer points of grammar to his teacher.

We had a useless HT a few years ago who said that we shouldn't be teaching specific spelling or grammar. When we asked how the children would learn to use correct SPAG we were told it was "an emergent thing" and they would just absorb it.
Of course this proved to be a complete load of shite and we are reaping the whirlwind now

This was in Scotland but I think some grammar teaching has gone too far. I read about the stuff kids in England have to do for SATs and I have no idea what some of it means. I have got through my life without it so I can't see the point.

The worrying thing to me is that people say things they have obviously heard like an "odd suite bathroom" without actually stopping to wonder if it makes sense.

I read about the stuff kids in England have to do for SATs and I have no idea what some of it means. I have got through my life without it so I can't see the point.
The fronted adverbial is just saying 'Slowly, he walked to the door' instead of 'He walked to the door slowly'. It's a literary thing, someone who reads a lot will absorb it but if they don't it's not a problem, people will still understand what they are talking about. To spend such a lot of time on it instead of the correct use of apostrophes, their/there/they're, would've instead of would of etc. is ridiculous.

The quality of teaching has changed.
How people read has changed.
Sending messages has meant that shortened versions are used.

I think that some people don't consider what an expression means.
An example on here is 'going against the grain' to mean 'going against the flow'

An example on here is 'going against the grain' to mean 'going against the flow

Don’t these expressions mean much the same thing though? To do something contrary to the majority, or expectations?

@Bluntness100

I have to be honest.

When people write “draws” instead of drawers it always surprises me. I understand many people are sadly functionally Illiterate, but when posting on a forum it’s clear you have a very basic grasp of being able to read and write. How people get to adult hood, have their own homes and don’t know it’s a drawer and not a draw always surprises me.

I would have felt the same (though I am by no means well educated) before I married my exH (Dyslexic) and had my children (Dyslexic, also auditory processing disorder - basically their ears work fine but the messages from cochlea to brain gets delayed / jumbled / lost).

What I came to realise is that not only do they all struggle with spelling etc but they don't 'hear' the word correctly either. So to hear 'draws' instead of 'drawers', effectively missing out a syllable, is not uncommon. I think Dyslexia is more common than is diagnosed.

Of course, it may not be due to this as this is merely my 'anecdata'

@ILoveShula

The quality of teaching has changed. How people read has changed. Sending messages has meant that shortened versions are used.

I think that some people don't consider what an expression means.
An example on here is 'going against the grain' to mean 'going against the flow'

It does mean that though?

@bandito and @BanditoShipman, no they don't.

against the flow. is to do things that do not agree with what most other people are doing

against the grain is contrary to the natural inclination or feeling of someone or something.

I'd be going with the flow if I wasn't agreeing with others. I'd be going against the grain if I voted Tory

On here it gets used in the context of all previous posters saying 'that dress is lovely'

If you went against the grain, you'd say 'I don't like the dress' when you did.

Another one that gets misused on here is 'horses for courses', used here to mean each to her own taste, but the phrase means that different people are suited to different things.

Close the boarders.

On a floor plan for a house on Right Move 'walking wardrobe'

That would be annoying at night.

When DS was in primary he came home with a book called How The Elephant Got It's Trunk.

A real, published book.

Isn't it How The Elephant Got His Trunk?

[quote ILoveShula]**@bandito* and @BanditoShipman*, no they don't.

against the flow. is to do things that do not agree with what most other people are doing

against the grain is contrary to the natural inclination or feeling of someone or something.

I'd be going with the flow if I wasn't agreeing with others. I'd be going against the grain if I voted Tory[/quote]
Thank you 🙂

sorry.I meant to @BikeRunSki not @bandito

@LittleDidSheKnow THANK YOU! My reference was incorrect! I'm always happy to be corrected on things like that!