Why are people using "his" instead of "he's"?

[Mydadsbirthday]

What fresh hell is this?

Why can people not read and write any more?

That's fine @Scrabsqueak . I can hear it in that beautiful lilt now. Just oddly out of context with the person I sm thinking of.

Exactly @notprincehamlet

Discusting instead of Disgusting annoys the hell out of me. It's not even a word ffs!

As for could of and could have ...

I find some posts of social media so painful to read.

I was sat
Can I get

Shudder.

'Mash' potato is one I've noticed creeping in ('mashed').

And as I say on every thread like this, please, please can't we initiate the extinction of the horrible I WAS SAT !? Virtually no-one uses 'I was sitting' any more. Not on MN, not on UK tv or in the newspapers, not around me IRL.

Recently I had Austrian guests who are fluent English-speakers, and it was very noticeable that they had better grammar than most English people do nowadays 😱

Haha, snap with Words one post below me :)

Autocorrect and voice to text apps mostly. Unless you are hearing people say it out loud incorrectly.

Most people don’t proof read casual texts and comments.

I'm pleased someone mentioned 'floor' for 'ground'.

My pet hate, or one of them anyway, is 'loose' for 'lose'. I feel like thanking posters who use them correctly. 'Lose' seems to be dying out.

I was more meaning that what the OP is complaining about is something she wouldn't have seen in writing prior to the advent of social media. You're correct about standardisation of spelling in English - I remember studying it at A Level yonks ago. Accents were becoming more homogeneous with fewer, older people speaking with strong regional accents due to the proliferation of TV and radio. If social media plays a role on preserving regional differences then that in itself is interesting if you have an interest in the development of the English language.

Confusion between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’.

I'd never thought of it like that. That really is interesting, you're right. That would make a very interesting program or study.

If you grow up in a house of non-readers, the chances are you’ll also be a non-reader and less likely to be a strong speller. I count myself lucky having grown up in a reading house, because we’re were common as muck otherwise. I could have easily ended up as a “chester draws” person if I didn’t have the fortune of a reading mum. Even now, I find myself carefully checking everything I say and write around people who grew up in much more middle class families than I did, because I know there are some words and phrases I will have simply been saying or spelling wrong my entire life, seeing as the only time I would have ever come across them is when reading.

When it’s ‘allot’.

@honeylulu @StillLifeWithEggs Isn't the ground/floor thing a regional variation though? My DH is from Kent and they use the word 'inside' to mean at home. So I might be out somewhere, say at a pub or at somebody else's house, and ask where somebody is. He will say ' oh she's inside', which makes me think that she is actually inside the pub or the house we are at, when he actually means that she is at home. I think he may also use floor when he means ground.

Oh I HATE this! I once dated a lad who actually said he's instead of his! "I've been helping he's son with something" Every. Single. Time I corrected him. I couldn't listen to it.

It's almost as bad as those people who say 'brought' instead of bought! 🫣

"I brought some plants" No! You bought them!

Loose instead of lose, to instead of too and could of instead of could have are everywhere on Mumsnet. All are inexcusable.

People don't read books any more, they read forums (fora) and websites where mistakes are made and perpetrated ad infinitum.

And for me it's discreet/discrete. Many people seem to think it's the same thing (although which thing seems to vary) and just has alternative spellings. It can render something incoherent.

Even if people don’t read for pleasure, basic mistakes should surely have been sorted out at school. However I’ve heard of some teachers who don’t apparently have the best grasp of the basics.
Why on earth they aren’t weeded out during early teacher training and given remedial English I just can’t understand.

A long time ago I was a very young teacher. I worked for a headmaster who wanted promotion. Of course we all want pupils to understand the concept of 6 times 7 but I believe that we should give them the rote shorthand of saying their tables, too. He always had done, I expect. I was doing.

Then one day, after a person from the education office had been in, the head asked me not to have the children say their tables out loud. They were to know them by some miracle of osmosis but rote learning was out. I took it that he was afraid if he didn't 'modernise' he wouldn't have a chance at promotion. If I'd been two years away from retirement I'd have just carried on and ignored him, but I wasn't.
When I was seven/eight etc. I had to do what your Dad had to do and that old rote shorthand doesn't let me down. Three sevens are twenty-one, four sevens are twenty-eight, five sevens are thirty-five et cetera.
I know this thread is primarily about words but we haven't messed up too much by talking about maths.

Noone instead of no one. I see it a lot on here and it makes me shout at my phone 😁

I see your draws and raise you chester draws.

Has anyone mentioned dose for does yet? Grinds my gears

I would say, "I was sat" if I were talking to friends because it's what is said in my local dialogue. I wouldn't write that, except here!

If people see a misspelt word often enough, they will assume it's correct. And as a lot of people don't read books but only social media / tiktok, then they're going to see a lot of misspelling.

I think that’s definitely a large part of it, people’s primary sources of exposure to the written word being other semi-literate people.

I am an elderly retired English teacher and I can assure you spelling/punctuation/grammar errors were frequent fifty years ago. I always taught spelling, etc. but it did not always work!