To get annoyed when mnetters put "of" instead of "have"

[Doobies]

I see it more and more often in aibu.

"to of eaten this"

"to of gone out today"

To give a couple of examples.

I don't like seeing people corrected for mistakes they've made unawares, or because they're typing fast, or because they don't care too much how they write on MN.

However, I think there's a silly kind of attitude some people have (not just on MN), of being almost proud of their mistakes. I'm dyslexic myself; that doesn't mean I'm incapable of learning from my mistakes. It annoys me when people use learning difficulties or regional accents or whatever as excuses not to try to learn. It's patronizing to the rest of us who have exactly the same reasons for making mistakes, but who've tried to get over them.

I'd much rather someone told me about a persistent error here, where it doesn't matter!

Btw, some grammatical constructions are really important. My mum teachers remedial arithmetic, and if you think about it, someone who knows that the constructions is 'different from' is already better placed to understand subtraction than someone who thinks it's 'different to'!

"We all come from different walks of live, we all have different abilities and capabilities"

Well said, altinkum. The people I train to write better are management consultants. Many of them are pretty poor writers, yet they are bright, successful people who make loads more money than me. I correct their grammar for them, but that is my job, and they generally appreciate the help, because they accept that their talents lie in other directions. They can't do what I do, but I could never do what they do.

The chairman of my company is extremely pedantic and judgey (sp?) about grammar etc and is said to have knocked a grand off someone's bonus for a misplaced apostrophe. The same man made a stylistic error in his statement for the annual report (he began a sentence with a numeral, something he tells others not to do in the company style guide). I corrected it and he changed it back!

I hate that kind of shit.

YANBU at all. Poot grammar should be pointed out at all times.

And can I add that I get annoyed when people say/write
bored of, instead of bored with or bored by.

you cannot be bored of anything.

"If I'm doing something wrong, I want to know so I can avoid doing it wrong in an important situation."

That might be a popular view, but the whole matter is a rather sensitive one and no poll would be easy to create to test whether those making mistakes 'would like to know' or not. It is also the case that some posters have genuine difficulties (not laziness, 'text speak' preferences, bad habits, or lacking education) which mean that being told once may not really help them.

They may have no easy way to effect change, but they are individuals with the same level of membership and the same right to ask or respond and should be afforded the same level of acceptance whether there are spelling or grammar or other issues (though someone who would string sentences together with every other word from a "cussing dictionary" might get ignored!)

In other words, bite your tongue and get off your pedestal if someone posts with far from ideal spelling or grammar, and rather than have a go at them for it, can people not simply respond (unless the post is so garbled as to make no sense when one has ignored typos etc) in a polite and (hopefully) helpful way ?

I suppose now that 'message poster' is available, it would be possible (though may not get a great reception) if some 'correction' is sent privately rather than posted, so the recipient can be shown their (possible) mistake without it becoming a public embarrassment issue.

However, if the 'correction' is itself wrong, that runs into other problems if done in private.

Maybe, we should have a sticky thread of all the grammatical faux pas that people are inclined to make?

Then anyone who thinks they are not too hot on grammar could have a "teach yourself" session online!

I can imagine my reply if someone pmed me about a grammatical error I had made ..I think I might need to borrow your cussing dictionary for that Networkguy

"homophonic error prior to approximately six months ago and yet now it is ubiquitous."

a) not ubiquitous - more common, perhaps, but ubiquitous ? Really ?

b) homophonic - thanks for expanding my vocabulary...

However, doesn't a sentence like that strike fear into some people when they see it, eyes glaze over, and they wonder a bit about whether they have anything in common with the author ?

I am sure there are no statistics on it becoming more or less frequent, but if there is by chance any such figure, it means that Mumsnet is being used by a broader cross-section of the public than before, and if that means some relaxing of 'superior' views to accommodate others without quite the same levels of education, so be it.

I am in no way encouraging poorer grammar, but acknowledging lots of levels exist in our society. When I left school, I could have been deemed a failure compared with several classmates, who each achieved 11 'O' levels and went on to study 4 'A' levels. I left with a little over half that number of 'O' levels. When I was unemployed in the early 90s, and helped people at Job Club do their CVs on Windows 3.1 (wow!) I was significantly 'better off' in the qualification stakes than most.

I have worked alongside people with degree, MSc and PhD level qualifications but have never felt intimidated by them, and strongly feel that this thread has shown a number of posters as being apparently incapable of accepting others may have failed to attain the same level of English as themselves, and further, appear to blame those other posters for their 'shortcomings'.

It is incredibly disappointing to see a bunch of intelligent people seem incapable of grasping the fact that they may have had a more caring family and school environment, and I would only hope that some can dig deep and make allowance rather than simply 'skip over' any thread or post where some typos or grammar or other errors are too much for them to 'overlook'.

cabbageroses - an excellent idea.

I am sure it would be acceptable to MNHQ and if no one else suggests it on Site_Stuff, then I will do so later in the week.

countbapula - you have said everything I have wanted to but far more eloquently!

Network guy - some good points.

IMO if an educated person made an error and was corrected, they would probably be slightly irritated but may appreciate the feedback. However, I would think that if the same feedback was given to someone not so educated, they would feel very inferior and also be put off posting on a site that appears to be full of middle classed pretentious people.

As long as I could hide said thread ...I don't come on MN for grammar lessons

I think it starts from the top. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had some problems spelling.

Blair had trouble with tomorrow
news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_1669000/1669849.stm

Maybe this filters down to the education system and contributed to New Labour dumbing down?

filtered down

"I would think that if the same feedback was given to someone not so educated"

context is all though - pointing something out on a thread is public humiliation, perhaps (or accepted as educative, depending on the recipient), in a private message, it may upset or offend, though if done gently and with some politeness about 'just in case you didn't know...' may be gratefully received.

If not, then at least with private message facility one can put a block on receiving any further messages, so whether person making an error swore in response to polite correction, or felt offended at getting a correction, either party could block further private messages.

Hmmm, not sure whether you can unblock a sender, nor whether sender gets told 'Your message has been blocked as the recipient does not want messages from you!' ... something to ask MNHQ :)

topic here for posters that want to learn

thanks usualsuspect, but there is some feriously scary suckers in that there pedants corner. No wonder they are all huddled up in one corner. We don't want them to circulate throughout MN.

tbh I don't see that the topic the thread is posted in makes all that much difference.

People either get annoyed by errors or they don't. And people get annoyed by other people getting annoyed by errors, or they don't.

exactly, to be or not to be? that is a question that the pedants may like to ponder.

But at least you can choose if you want to go in there ..A sticky thread on active convos is a terrible idea

I'm far to thick to venture into pedant's corner

but some innocents who ventured in there for a piece of advice never made a return. They were chewed up and spat out by some of the more aggressive pedants, and MN didn't even ban the pedants.

well yes that could be a problem...one misplaced apostrophe in there and you are history

I do think that encouraging posters to PM each other with suggested grammatical corrections is a recipe for complete carnage

I wouldn't point my worst enemy to pedants corner. Beelzebub himself wouldn't go near it. AIBU is child's play compared to the gorgons in pedants corner.

Gorgon with a capital 'G', in case I tempt a Gorgon out from hiding.

claig, I clicked on a few of the threads in pedants corner. I would not use the words 'gorgons' or 'scary suckers'. Perhaps a little hyperbole on your part?